Lecture 3 - Software FMEA

Question 1

What is software FMEA?

Answer 1

• Software FMEA is not generally done on dedicated software packages (they have their own testing regimes) but is done as part of evaluation of software in products designed by non-software engineers e.g. medical devices
• It is intended to identify what software applications should NOT do.
• There is no universally agreed-upon Standard for performing software FMEAs, although it is the subject of various standards committees.

Question 2

What are the objectives of softwre FMEA?

Answer 2

• Identifying missing software requirements.
• Analysing a system’s behaviour as it responds to a request that originates from outside of that system.
• Identifying (and mitigating) single-point failures that can result in catastrophic failures.
• Identifying features that need fault-handling strategies.
• Identifying software response to hardware anomalies