Fault tree analysis (FTA)

A technique to explore the many potential or actual causes of product or system failure. FTA is a top-down analysis method, where one starts with a symptom or fault and then lists the many possible causes in a structured manner. It provides a structured way to organize information about the occurrence of the top event. FTA may be useful to create a system reliability model to estimate system reliability performance or to organize brainstorming potential paths of events that lead to the occurrence of the top event.