From Function to Failure

Failure Mode Reasoning (FMR) is a method for formal analysis of system-related faults. The method was originally developed for identifying failure modes of safety-critical systems based on an analysis of their programs. In this paper, we generalize the method and present a mathematical framework for its use in model-based system and safety analyses. We explain the concepts, formalize the method, formulate models for example systems, and discuss the practical application of the method.