Template · FMEA Quality Risk Analysis
A working FMEA for software, not a form.Ten columns. Every risk. Every release.
The Sumatra FMEA is a Failure Mode and Effects Analysis adapted from aerospace and automotive practice for software quality risk. It converts stakeholder judgment into a defensible, numerically prioritized register you can defend to any audience.
- Columns
- 10
- Variants
- Basic + Advanced
- Methodology
- FMEA
A prioritized risk register does one thing spreadsheets rarely do: it survives its first change request. The FMEA is the shape that makes that survival possible.
Key takeaways
Four things to remember.
01
Severity × Priority × Likelihood = RPN
The Risk Priority Number is the numerical shorthand for the risk. 1 (catastrophic) to 5 (cosmetic) on each axis, multiplied together.
02
Categorize before you enumerate
Functionality, Load, Usability, Compatibility, Reliability, Security, Maintainability, pick the categories first, then populate risks under each.
03
Recommended action belongs in the register
Extensive, Balanced, Opportunity, Report-Bug-and-Move-On. The register tells you how to test each risk, not just that it exists.
04
Trace to requirements
Every risk links back to at least one requirement or user story. No link means the risk is either invented or the requirements are incomplete.
Why this exists
What this template is for.
The FMEA originated in 1940s aerospace engineering and migrated into automotive and medical device quality programs. We adapted it for software because it does something unusual: it forces stakeholders to reason numerically about risks they would otherwise argue about qualitatively.
This template ships with SpeedyWriter (a fictional document management system) as a worked example. Replace the system name, stakeholders, and risks with your own, the column structure is what matters.
The columns
What each field means.
Hierarchical identifier. Top-level category gets "1", "2", etc. Each risk under the category gets "1.001", "1.002", ... so you can sort, filter, and trace without losing structure.
Example: 1.005 (for the fifth risk under Functionality)
The ISO/IEC 25010-style category the risk belongs to. Filled in only on the header row for each category, left blank on individual risks inside that category.
Example: Functionality, Load/Capacity/Volume, Reliability, Security, Usability
One-line description of what could fail and how the failure would present. Focus on the observable effect on the user, not the internal cause.
Example: Check-in of new document to DMS fails.
How bad is this failure for users, on a 1–5 scale. 1 = catastrophic / safety / data loss. 5 = cosmetic / minor.
Example: 1 = catastrophic; 5 = cosmetic
How important is this risk to the business, independent of severity, on a 1–5 scale. A rarely-used feature can be low priority even if a failure there would be severe.
Example: 1 = must-fix; 5 = nice-to-have
How likely this failure is to occur, on a 1–5 scale. 1 = will definitely happen without mitigation; 5 = extremely unlikely.
Example: 1 = certain; 5 = negligible
The product of Severity × Priority × Likelihood. Lower RPN = higher risk. Sort the register by RPN ascending to see what to test first.
Example: 1 × 1 × 3 = 3 (very high); 5 × 5 × 5 = 125 (negligible)
How to mitigate the risk in testing. Extensive, Balanced, or Opportunity testing; Report-and-Move-On for known-deferred; Rerun-Regression for existing coverage.
Example: Extensive testing; Opportunity testing; Rerun entire R3.0 test set
Who owns the test (Dev, Test, User-Cert, N/A) and at which phase it applies (Unit, Component, Integration, System). Multiple can be listed.
Example: Dev/UC-Test/IS (Dev unit tests + User Certification + Integration-System test)
Link(s) to the requirement(s) this risk covers. Every risk should trace; an untraced risk is a sign that either the risk is invented or requirements are missing.
Example: 3.1 (ties to Requirement 3.1 in the spec)
Live preview
What it looks like populated.
Excerpt from the Basic Sumatra FMEA workbook, Test Dev sheet.
| Risk ID | Category | Failure Mode | Sev | Pri | Like | RPN | Recommended Action | Who / Phase | Req |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | Functionality | Failures causing specific features not to work | |||||||
| 1.001 | Regression of existing SpeedyWriter features. | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | Rerun entire R3.0 test set. | Test/IS | 3.0 | |
| 1.002 | Can't cancel incomplete actions using cancel or back. | 2 | 3 | 4 | 24 | Opportunity testing. | N/A | ||
| 1.005 | Check-in of new document to DMS fails. | 2 | 1 | 2 | 4 | Extensive testing. | Dev/UC-Test/IS | 3.1 | |
| 2.0 | Load, Capacity, Volume | Failures in scaling to expected peak concurrent usage | |||||||
| 2.001 | System fails at or before 25 concurrent users. | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | Extensive testing. | Test/S | 1.1 | |
| 2.004 | System disallows 32,767 or fewer user accounts. | 1 | 3 | 3 | 9 | Balanced testing. | Test/S | 1.3 |
How to use it
8 steps, in order.
- 1
Convene the FMEA workshop with every stakeholder who owns quality: product, engineering, support, security, operations. One meeting per category is fine.
- 2
Fill in the Risk ID and Quality Risk Category header rows first, one per category you will cover.
- 3
Under each category, enumerate failure modes in the Failure Mode / Quality Risk / Effect column. One row per distinct failure. Do not dedupe aggressively at this stage.
- 4
Score Severity, Priority, and Likelihood as a group. When the group disagrees, capture the disagreement in a comment, do not paper over it.
- 5
Compute the RPN (the workbook does this for you via a formula). Sort the register by RPN ascending and review the top of the list with the group.
- 6
Fill in Recommended Action for every row. Tests that will never run (Opportunity, Report-and-Move-On) are still logged here so the judgment is explicit.
- 7
Trace each risk to a requirement. Mark rows with no link for a follow-up requirements review, and handle the incipient-bugs step of the Quality Risk Analysis Process.
- 8
Check the finalized workbook into configuration management and require change requests to alter it afterwards.
Methodology
The thinking behind it.
The FMEA scale is counter-intuitive: lower numbers mean more severe, higher priority, more likely. This is deliberate, it lets you multiply into an RPN where lower means "do this first". If your organization finds it confusing, invert it in display but keep the multiplication convention internally.
The Basic variant uses one sheet. The Advanced variant uses four sheets (Initial, Estimate, Planning, Test Dev), each snapshots the FMEA at a different phase of the project so you can see how risk understanding evolves over time.
When in doubt, score higher (lower number). An over-scored risk costs a few extra tests. An under-scored risk costs a production incident.
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In the library
Pair this with.
Process · Quality Risk Analysis
Prioritize risk before you prioritize tests.
Testing without a prioritized quality risk analysis is testing by politics. This six-step process produces a risk register with explicit stakeholder consensus, the basis for every downstream testing decision.
Read →Process · Test Estimation
Estimate testing the way projects actually work.
Test estimates fail either because they skip the work breakdown or because they skip stakeholder buy-in. This process does both, in sequence, so the resulting schedule and budget survive contact with management.
Read →Template · Test Tracking Workbook
One workbook for everything you track during test execution.
A multi-sheet workbook that gives a test manager a single pane of glass over an execution cycle. Designed for the volume of data a real program produces, not the volume a demo produces.
Read →Process · The Master Framework
Four phases, applied in order, every project.
The top-level testing process used on every engagement. Four phases contain twelve sub-processes, each of which is documented in its own checklist in this library.
Read →
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