Preparing to Undertake the System Safety Analysis

An important step in system safety analysis is found not in conducting the analysis itself, but in preparing to do so. Time spent preparing order can save time and avoid confusion as the analysis progresses, and also reduce the likelihood of misunderstandings between analyst, supervisor and/or client. A checklist of preanalysis planning considerations can help ensure thoroughness and enhance ongoing accord among the parties involved. An improved analysis is the end result. The example considerations presented are not meant as cast-in-bronze dicta, but as starting-place thought provokers. Such lists must always be treated as evergreen documents that should suffer prunings and enjoy graftings throughout their useful lives to adapt them to particular applications and to advances in the state of the art in their various domains of application.