Technical Risk Assessment (FMEA)
6 weeks · 0 milestones
Conduct a Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) for a real engineering system, product, or process. The FMEA must cover: a scope definition specifying the system boundary, the failure modes being analysed, and the applicable life phase (design, manufacturing, or operation), a complete FMEA worksheet with at least 15 failure modes — each with failure mode description, failure effect (on the immediate function and on the end user), severity rating (1–10 scale with documented criteria), occurrence rating (1–10 with documented frequency basis), detection rating (1–10 with documented detection method), Risk Priority Number (RPN = S × O × D), and recommended corrective action for all failure modes with RPN above the threshold, a Pareto analysis of the top 20% of failure modes by RPN demonstrating where corrective action should be prioritised, and a recommended detection method for the highest-RPN failure mode that does not currently have an adequate detection mechanism. Preferred proof: an FMEA conducted as part of a real engineering design or quality review. Accessible alternative: FMEA of a real product or system using publicly available technical documentation — product manuals, service bulletins, and failure databases (FAA Service Difficulty Reporting System, CPSC recall database, FDA MAUDE database) are free public sources that provide real failure mode data. Proof artifacts: the FMEA worksheet (analysis artifact) and the Pareto analysis with corrective action recommendations (documentation artifact). Verification: an engineering manager or quality engineer reviews the detection ratings — 'this failure mode has a detection rating of 9 (almost undetectable); what specific test or monitoring method would bring that to 4 or below?' — requiring you to propose a specific, feasible detection mechanism.
Milestone map
Milestone map
3 milestones
Select a real or realistic engineering system or project for technical risk assessment: a manufacturing facility, a construction project, an infrastructure asset, a chemical process, a software system, or an engineering design. Define the scope: what is being assessed, the system boundary, the hazard categories in scope (safety, environmental, financial, schedule, reputational, or combination), and the risk assessment method to be used (FMEA, HAZOP, Bow-Tie, quantitative risk assessment, project risk register, or equivalent). Identify ≥10 hazards using structured elicitation — brainstorming, checklist, SWIFT (Structured What-If Technique), or equivalent — and document each hazard with its source, potential consequence category, and the element of the system it affects.
Proof required
Submit your hazard identification record (≥10 hazards identified using a named structured method, each with source, consequence category, and system element affected) and scope document (system boundary, hazard categories in scope, and risk assessment method selected).
What gets checked
- Hazard identification uses a named structured method — FMEA, SWIFT, HAZOP, or brainstorming checklist — not an unstructured list
- ≥10 hazards are identified across ≥3 different consequence categories — not all the same type of hazard
- System boundary is defined — what elements are included and excluded from the assessment