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Before You Begin

Ensure you have:
  • An FHA risk document created and open in Polarion (see Create a New Risk Analysis Document)
  • The system function you are analyzing identified and linked to a System Element
  • Access to the FHA risksheet view within your risk document

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Steps

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1. Open the FHA Risksheet

Navigate to your FHA document within the Risks module. The risksheet displays six column groups: System, Failure Identification, Classification, DAL Allocation, Safety Requirements, and Verification. In the System column group, select the Function work item that this failure condition is associated with. The function serves as the parent entity — each function can have multiple failure conditions representing different ways it could fail to perform its intended purpose.
The exact interaction for linking a Function to a failure condition row (inline picker vs. dialog) should be confirmed in the live Polarion UI. The Function entity type serves both FHA and SFMEA analyses.

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3. Enter the Failure Condition Title and Effect Description

In the Failure Identification column group:
  • Failure Condition — Enter a concise title describing the failure condition (e.g., “Loss of pitch control authority”)
  • Effect Description — Describe the effect on the aircraft or system operation in clear, objective terms. Avoid inferring severity here; that belongs in the next step.

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4. Assign the Flight Phase

Select the applicable flight phase from the flightPhase field. ARP 4761 defines seven phases:
PhaseTypical Use
TakeoffGround roll through initial climb
ClimbInitial climb to cruise altitude
CruiseLevel flight at cruise altitude
DescentCruise altitude to approach initiation
ApproachFinal approach segment
LandingFlare through ground roll
GroundTaxiing and parking operations
If the failure condition is relevant across multiple phases, create separate rows for each phase or select the most critical phase where the effect is worst-case.
ARP 4761 requires analysis at the most adverse phase. For loss-of-control failure conditions, Approach and Landing typically represent the worst-case phases due to low altitude and limited recovery time.

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5. Classify the Failure Condition

In the Classification column group, select the severity level from the classification field: diagram The DAL Allocation column is automatically populated based on your classification selection. Do not attempt to override it directly.
Changing a classification from Major to Hazardous after safety requirements have been linked will cascade — the DAL allocation updates automatically, but you must review linked safety requirements to ensure their DAL is consistent. Mismatches between the failure condition DAL and its linked safety requirement DAL are flagged in the FMEA Coverage report.

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6. Set the Probability Target

In the Classification column group, set the probabilityTarget field per ARP 4761 quantitative targets:
  • Extremely Improbable — < 10⁻⁹ (required for Catastrophic)
  • Extremely Remote — < 10⁻⁷ (required for Hazardous)
  • Remote — < 10⁻⁵ (required for Major)
  • Reasonably Probable — for Minor and No Safety Effect

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7. Save the Row

Save the work item row. The Verification column will default to open status, indicating the failure condition requires further analysis before it can be closed.
The verificationStatus field progresses through four states: open → inProgress → completed → verified. Use this to track FHA completion without relying on document-level workflow state alone.

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Verification

You should now see the new failure condition row in the FHA risksheet with:
  • A linked Function in the System column
  • Classification color coding applied (red for Catastrophic through grey for No Safety Effect)
  • DAL allocation auto-populated in the DAL Allocation column
  • Verification status set to open
Navigate to the DAL Allocation column to confirm the formula has resolved correctly before proceeding.

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See Also

Code: .polarion/tracker/fields/failureCondition-phase-enum.xml (0.65) · .polarion/nextedy/models/rtm.yaml (0.64) · modules/RiskTemplates/FHATemplate/attachments/risksheet.json (0.64) · .polarion/tracker/fields/failureCondition-custom-fields.xml (0.61) · 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 (0.60) · modules/RiskTemplates/SSATemplate/attachments/risksheet.json (0.59) · modules/RiskTemplates/SubSystem-FMEATemplate/attachments/risksheet.json (0.58) · .polarion/tracker/fields/failureMode-custom-fields.xml (0.58) · modules/RiskTemplates/System-FMEATemplate/attachments/risksheet.json (0.58) · .polarion/tracker/fields/failureCondition-classification-enum.xml (0.58)