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What You Will Achieve

By the end of this tutorial, you will have created a Functional Hazard Assessment (FHA) document for a system function, classified a failure condition using the ARP 4761 severity scale, and derived a linked safety requirement with an assigned Design Assurance Level (DAL).

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Prerequisites

  • Aerospace Safety Solution installed and configured in your Polarion project (see Install the Aerospace Safety Solution)
  • A Polarion project with the Risks/ document space created
  • At least one system function defined in your project

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Step 1: Open the FHA Document

Navigate to the Risks space in your Polarion project and open the FHA document. In the reference project, this is named FCC System Functional Hazard Assessment (ARP 4761) and located at Risks/FHA-SYS-001. You should see the FHA risksheet with 12 columns organized into 6 header groups:
Header GroupColumns
SystemItem ID
Failure IdentificationFailure Condition, Flight Phase, Effect Description
ClassificationClassification, Probability Target
DAL AllocationDAL
Safety RequirementsSR ID, Safety Requirement, DAL Level
VerificationVerification Status
If the document does not exist yet, create it from the FHA template available in the Risks space. The risksheet configuration and column layout will be applied automatically.

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Step 2: Add a Function Row

Click + Function in the toolbar to add the top-level system function you are analyzing. Enter a descriptive function name such as: 
Sensor Data Acquisition
What you see: A new row appears at the top level of the hierarchy, indented to indicate it is a function. This is the parent entry that failure conditions will be nested under.

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Step 3: Add a Failure Condition

With the function row selected, click + Failure Condition to add a child row representing what can go wrong. Enter the failure condition name: 
Loss of airspeed data from primary pitot-static sensor
Fill in the remaining Failure Identification columns:
  • Flight Phase: Cruise
  • Effect Description: Complete loss of indicated airspeed on primary display; crew must revert to backup instruments
What you see: The failure condition appears nested under the function row. The Classification and DAL columns are empty — you will fill these next.

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Step 4: Set the Classification

Click the Classification cell for your failure condition and select a severity level from the dropdown. For loss of airspeed data, select Hazardous. What you see immediately: Two things happen automatically:
  1. The DAL column fills in with DAL B — the tool calculates this from your classification
  2. The Probability Target column updates to Extremely Remote (< 10⁻⁷)
diagram
The DAL value is derived by formula from your Classification selection. Overriding it manually will break the traceability chain and produce incorrect safety objectives.

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Step 5: Add a Safety Requirement

Click + Safety Requirement to derive a safety requirement from this failure condition. Enter the safety requirement title: 
The system shall maintain airspeed indication availability with probability better than 10^-7 per flight hour
What you see: A new row appears in the Safety Requirements group. The DAL Level column on the requirement row inherits DAL B from the parent failure condition. The SR ID column populates with the Polarion work item ID (for example, TA-30015) once saved. The requirement is linked to the failure condition via the allocatesTo link role — this creates the FHA → SafetyReq traceability that feeds your PSSA and SSA later.

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Step 6: Set the Verification Status

Click the Verification Status cell on the safety requirement row and set it to Open. What you see: The cell displays a red badge labeled Open, indicating the requirement has been identified but work has not started. You will update this to In Progress, Completed, and finally Verified as the project progresses.

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Step 7: Switch Views to Review Your Work

Use the view selector above the risksheet to switch to Classification Summary view. What you see: The display narrows to show Classification, Probability Target, and DAL columns. Row headers color-code by classification — your Hazardous row appears in orange, giving you an immediate visual summary of the risk profile.
Use the Traceability view before submitting for review. It shows the complete chain — function → failure condition → safety requirement → verification status — on a single screen, making gaps obvious.
Exact view names and the view selector location may differ depending on your Polarion version and risksheet configuration. Check the toolbar at the top of the document.

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Next Steps

You have created a complete FHA entry with a classified failure condition, an auto-calculated DAL, and a linked safety requirement. From here:
  • The V-Model Development Process — learn how the FHA feeds into PSSA, SSA, and downstream verification
  • Continue adding failure conditions for all functions in your system — the FHA for a Flight Control Computer typically analyzes functions across Sensor Interface, Processing Core, and Actuator Bus Interface subsystems
Code: modules/RiskTemplates/FHATemplate/attachments/risksheet.json (0.68) · datasets/sol-aero-ui-walkthrough/summary.md, navigation.md, dashboards/home-dashboard.md, dashboards/role-dashboards.md, dashboards/standards-compliance.md, risksheet-views/risksheet-views.md, work-item-types/data-model.md (0.63) · .polarion/tracker/fields/failureCondition-classification-enum.xml (0.61) · modules/RiskTemplates/DFMEATemplate/attachments/risksheet.json (0.58) · .polarion/tracker/fields/workitem-type-enum.xml (0.57) · .polarion/pages/spaces/Requirements/Home/page.xml, Design/Home/page.xml, Risks/Home/page.xml, Testing/Home/page.xml, Risks/FMEA Reports/page.xml, Documentation/Home/page.xml, Documentation/Powersheet Help Redirect/page.xml, RiskTemplates/Home/page.xml (0.54) · modules/RiskTemplates/SubSystem-FMEATemplate/attachments/risksheet.json (0.53) · .polarion/nextedy/sheet-configurations/ARP 4761 Safety Assessment Traceability.yaml (0.52) · .polarion/pages/spaces/_default/Safety Assessment Summary/page.xml, Common Cause Analysis Report/page.xml, Security Threat Assessment/page.xml, Hara Risk Matrix Report/page.xml (0.51) · modules/RiskTemplates/System-FMEATemplate/attachments/risksheet.json (0.51)