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Before You Begin

Ensure you have:
  • A parent Subsystem SFMEA already created and populated with failure modes
  • System elements defined for the component (see Create System Elements)
  • Access to the Risks space in your Polarion project

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Step 1: Create the DFMEA Document

Navigate to the Risks space and create a new document using the DFMEATemplate module.
The instance risksheet.json is a byte-identical copy of the template at creation time. Changes to the template are not inherited by existing DFMEA documents. If the template is updated, you must manually apply changes to existing instances.
Set the systemElementId custom field to the component’s system element identifier. This field powers the 3-level breadcrumb at the top of the document and enables navigation to parent SFMEA documents.

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Step 2: Orient Using the Top Panel

Once the DFMEA opens, the top panel displays:
  • A 3-level breadcrumb: System → Subsystem → Component (each level is clickable)
  • Document metadata: status, version, and team
  • Links to associated Design Requirements (DRS-* prefix) and Design Characteristics (CHARS-* prefix) documents
  • A 5×5 risk matrix showing Severity × Occurrence distribution across all failure modes
Risk matrix interactivity requires in-application verification.

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Step 3: Identify Failure Modes (View 3)

Switch to View 3 — Identify Failure Modes to focus on the core columns. For each design characteristic under analysis, add a row and complete:
FieldDescription
ItemThe design characteristic identifier
SC/CC ClassificationSpecial Characteristic (orange badge) or Critical Characteristic (red badge)
Failure ModeHow this characteristic can fail
EffectsImpact of the failure on the system
CausesRoot cause of the failure
A risk description narrative is auto-generated by concatenating: ON CHARACTERISTICS: <item> FAILURE MODE: <failure_mode> CAUSE: <causes>. This appears with a light background and does not require manual entry.

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Step 4: Score Pre-Mitigation Risk (View 4)

Switch to View 4 — Initial Risk Ranking and score each failure mode:
  • Severity (fmSeverity): 1–5 ARP 4761 scale (1 = No Effect , 5 = Catastrophic )
  • Occurrence (premitigationFMOccurrence): frequency estimate, default 0 — must be set
  • Detection (premitigationDetection): ability to detect before harm, default 0 — must be set
The Pre-Mitigation RPN (commonRpn) is calculated automatically as Severity × Occurrence × Detection and color-coded: diagram
Both premitigationFMOccurrence and premitigationDetection default to 0. An RPN of 0 does not mean no risk — it means the scoring is incomplete. Always set both fields explicitly.
Switch to View 5 — Link Upstream SFMEA and populate the Upstream Risks column. Link to the parent Subsystem SFMEA failure modes using the causes link role. The column renders as a multi-item link showing the failure mode title and parent module name, establishing bidirectional traceability per the ARP 4761 cascade: System SFMEA → Subsystem SFMEA → Component DFMEA This traceability is inspectable from both ends — the parent SFMEA row shows downstream DFMEA links automatically.

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Step 6: Define Mitigation Controls (View 6)

Switch to View 6 — Define Mitigations and link a riskControl work item to each high-RPN failure mode:
  • Task ID: the linked risk control work item
  • Task Title: auto-rendered from the linked task
  • Implementation Status: open → inProgress → implemented → verified
  • Linked Requirements: automatically traversed from the risk control’s back-links to system or design requirements
  • Verification Test Cases: automatically traversed from requirement back-links to test cases
See Add Mitigation Actions for the full risk control workflow.

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Step 7: Final Risk Evaluation (View 8)

After controls are implemented, switch to View 8 — Final Risk Evaluation and score the residual risk:
  • Post-Mitigation Occurrence (postmitigationFMOccurrence): revised frequency after controls
  • Post-Mitigation Detection (postmitigationDetection): revised detectability after controls
  • Post-Mitigation RPN (commonRpnNew): computed automatically — same 3-tier color thresholds apply
View 9 — Risk Summary shows pre- and post-mitigation RPN side by side, making it easy to confirm risk reduction before document approval.

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Verification

You should now see:
  • All failure modes with both pre- and post-mitigation RPN values set and color-coded
  • The top-panel risk matrix reflecting the distribution across your failure modes
  • Upstream links populated in the Upstream Risks column connecting to the parent Subsystem SFMEA
  • Risk control tasks linked with implementation status tracked
The row header is colored by the residual (post-mitigation) RPN, giving an instant visual scan of remaining risk across all rows.

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See Also

Code: modules/RiskTemplates/DFMEATemplate/attachments/risksheet.json (0.55) · modules/RiskTemplates/DFMEATemplate/attachments/risksheetTopPanel.vm, SubSystem-FMEATemplate/attachments/risksheetTopPanel.vm, System-FMEATemplate/attachments/risksheetTopPanel.vm, PFMEATemplate/attachments/risksheetTopPanel.vm, HazardTrackingTemplate/attachments/risksheetTopPanel.vm, DFMEATemplate/attachments/risksheetPdfExport.vm, SubSystem-FMEATemplate/attachments/risksheetPdfExport.vm, System-FMEATemplate/attachments/risksheetPdfExport.vm, PFMEATemplate/attachments/risksheetPdfExport.vm (0.52) · 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 (0.50) · modules/Risks/DFMEA-CMP-PSU/attachments/risksheet.json (0.47) · modules/RiskTemplates/SubSystem-FMEATemplate/attachments/risksheet.json (0.37) · .polarion/nextedy/sheet-configurations/DO-160G Environmental Qualification.yaml, Component RTM.yaml, Configuration Index.yaml, Design Verification Sheet.yaml, Interface Control Matrix.yaml, Problem Report Tracker.yaml, Process Steps.yaml, Review Action Item Tracker.yaml, SOI Stage Gate Dashboard.yaml, Use Steps Specification.yaml, User Need Validation Sheet.yaml, characteristics.yaml, component-characteristics.yaml, customer-requirements.yaml, design-requirements.yaml, subsystem-functions.yaml, subsystem-verification.yaml, system-elements.yaml, test-verification.yaml (0.36)