Prepare Your Excel File
Ensure your Excel file contains these minimum columns for DFMEA import:
| Column | Required | Description |
|---|
| Item / System Element | Yes | Component or subsystem being analyzed |
| Failure Mode | Yes | How the item can fail |
| Failure Effects | No | Consequences of the failure |
| Failure Causes | No | Root causes of the failure mode |
| Severity (S) | Yes | 1-10 scale |
| Occurrence (O) | Yes | 1-10 scale (DFMEA) or 0-10 (PFMEA) |
| Detection (D) | Yes | 1-10 scale (DFMEA) or 0-10 (PFMEA) |
| Current Controls | No | Existing preventive/detective controls |
| Recommended Actions | No | Proposed risk mitigation tasks |
Polarion’s Excel import expects flat tables without merged cells, subtotals, or multi-row headers. Remove any Excel formatting, formulas, or macros before import — only cell values will be imported.
Map Excel Columns to Work Item Fields
- Navigate to Project Administration → Work Items → Import/Export
- Click Import from Excel
- Upload your prepared Excel file
- Select work item type:
- failureMode for Design FMEA (DFMEA) analysis
- processFailureMode for Process FMEA (PFMEA) analysis
- Map Excel columns to custom fields:
| Excel Column | Polarion Field | Notes |
|---|
| Item / System Element | systemElement | Select enumeration ID |
| Failure Mode | title | Work item title |
| Failure Effects | failureEffects | Custom field |
| Failure Causes | (linked work items) | Create after import |
| Severity | severity | Enum: 1-10 |
| Occurrence | occurrence | Enum: 0-10 (PFMEA) or 1-10 (DFMEA) |
| Detection | detection | Enum: 0-10 (PFMEA) or 1-10 (DFMEA) |
| Current Controls | currentControls | Custom field |
| Recommended Actions | (riskControl work items) | Create after import |
The systemElement field expects enumeration IDs like aeb-system, ecu-processing, not display names. Export your System Elements enumeration first to get the correct ID values for mapping.
Import and Validate
- Click Next to preview the import mapping
- Review field assignments — ensure severity/occurrence/detection map to correct enumerations
- Click Import to create failure mode work items
- Navigate to Risks space → find the imported failure modes by work item ID range
You should now see failure mode work items created in Polarion with severity, occurrence, and detection ratings populated.
Post-Import Cleanup
The Excel import creates flat work items only — you must manually establish the hierarchical structure and links:
Create FMEA Document (Risksheet)
- Go to Risks space → Create Document
- Select document type: System FMEA, Component DFMEA, or Process FMEA
- Title:
[System Element] - [FMEA Type] (e.g., “Camera Module - Component DFMEA”)
- Open the document, click Add Existing Work Items
- Query for imported failure modes by ID range or system element
- Click Add to Document to populate the Risksheet
Establish Hierarchical Structure
FMEA Risksheets use a 3-level hierarchy: Item → Failure Mode → Cause. Your imported failure modes are Level 2 only.
For each failure mode:
- Create parent Item work item (or link existing customerReq/systemElement)
- Link failure mode to parent via
assesses relationship
- Create child Cause work items from your Excel “Failure Causes” column
- Link causes to failure mode via
causes relationship
Imported failure modes have S/O/D ratings but no Action Priority (AP) value. Open the Risksheet, switch to View: 2. Initial Risk Ranking, and click Save to trigger the JavaScript AP formula recalculation.
Link Risk Controls
For each “Recommended Action” from Excel:
- Create a new riskControl work item
- Set title, assignee, due date, control type (Prevention/Detection)
- Link to the failure mode cause via
mitigates relationship
- After controls are implemented, update Occurrence Post and Detection Post ratings
- Save Risksheet to recalculate AP Post (post-mitigation action priority)
Verification
Open your FMEA Risksheet document and verify:
You now have a fully functional FMEA Risksheet populated from legacy Excel data.
See Also
