An improved SFMEA method integrated with assistive techniques

An improved analysis process of software failure modes and effects analysis (SFMEA) is presented in this paper, to alleviate the difficulties and heavy workload while applying the conventional SFMEA approach to complex systems. By integrating SFMEA with the functional structure, data flow diagram (DFD), control flow diagram (CFD) and software fault tree analysis (SFTA), the proposed method is easier and more convenient to be carried out. At last, we took a fly-by-wire flight control system for case study to verify the feasibility of this approach. The case study shows that the improved SFMEA method can help save effort while analyzing complex systems.