System and method for verifying the safety logic of a cause and effect matrix

Safety logic of a process control system is verified by accessing safety control logic for the process control system and creating a test Cause and Effect Matrix (CEM) 1520 and comparing 1540 it to a requirement defining CEM 1530. The safety control logic controls based upon a set of causes and a set of effects, wherein each of the set of causes represents a condition within the process plant and each of the set of effects represents an effect to be performed within the process plant. The safety control logic is implemented as a plurality of interconnected functions blocks, each of the plurality of interconnected function blocks having a set of inputs, a set of outputs and function block logic. Based on the plurality of function blocks of the safety control logic, the test cause and effect matrix (CEM) is generated. The requirement-defining CEM is accessed 1530 and compared 1540 to the test CEM to determine whether a set of discrepancies exists. The function blocks may include interconnected monitor blocks wherein the safety control logic is distributed within the monitor block logic. The test CEM may be generated by traversing through the one or more monitor or effect blocks. Discrepancies may be used to identify the associated function blocks, and the associated function blocks displayed.