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Steps

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1. Access the Characteristics PowerSheet

Navigate to the appropriate PowerSheet for your characteristics:
  • For system-level characteristics: Open the Characteristics Sheet from the Design Space Dashboard
  • For component-level characteristics: Open the Component Characteristics Sheet
The PowerSheet displays characteristics in the left (green) column group and linked failure modes in the right (red) column group.

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2. Identify Characteristics Requiring Failure Analysis

Focus on characteristics marked with SC (Safety Critical) or CC (Critical Characteristic) classification:
  • SC items appear with orange badge highlighting
  • CC items appear with red badge highlighting
These safety-classified characteristics require mandatory FMEA analysis per ISO 26262 Part 9. diagram For characteristics that should link to failure modes already documented in DFMEA documents:
  1. Click the Failure Mode cell in the expanded red column section
  2. Use the picker dialog to search for relevant FailureMode work items
  3. Select the failure mode(s) that relate to this characteristic
  4. Save the relationship
The link uses the failureModes relationship role defined in the RTM model.
Use the DFMEA document as reference when linking. Failure modes are typically organized by Function → Failure Mode hierarchy, so look for failure modes under the function that produces or affects your characteristic.

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4. Create New Failure Modes

If no existing failure mode covers the characteristic’s failure scenario:
  1. Click the + icon in the Failure Modes column header (if entityFactory is enabled)
  2. Fill in the failure mode form:
    • Title: Brief failure scenario description
    • Description: Detailed failure mechanism
    • Parent function: Select the function being analyzed
  3. Complete initial risk ratings (Severity, Occurrence, Detection)
  4. Save the new failure mode
The new FailureMode work item will automatically link back to the characteristic.

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5. Verify Traceability

Check that the characteristic-to-failure-mode link appears:
  • The PowerSheet’s red section should now show the linked failure mode(s)
  • Action Priority (AP) values appear color-coded:
    • L (Low) — Green
    • M (Medium) — Orange
    • H (High) — Red

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6. Check FMEA Coverage Status

Navigate to the FMEA Coverage Report (Risks Space → Reports):
  • The Characteristics Coverage Check section validates that all SC/CC characteristics have at least one linked failure mode
  • Uncovered characteristics appear in the “Not Covered” red card
  • Your newly linked characteristic should appear in the “Covered” green card
Always use the failureModes link role when linking from Characteristic → FailureMode. Using a different link role (like causes or mitigates) will not populate the PowerSheet columns and will not satisfy FMEA coverage validation.

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Verification

You should now see:
  • The characteristic row in the PowerSheet displays linked failure mode(s) in the red column section
  • Failure mode descriptions, IDs, and Action Priority values appear in expandable columns
  • The FMEA Coverage Report shows the characteristic as “Covered” if it has SC/CC classification
  • Clicking the failure mode cell navigates to the DFMEA document containing that failure mode

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See Also