Risk Assessment, 2nd Edition

Chapter 18 Life Cycle Use of Risk Analysis

18.1 Introduction

Risk analyses may be used for several purposes during a system's life cycle. This chapter discusses the purposes of risk analyses, what output they can provide, and the analytical methods that may be used in each phase of the system's life cycle. For each phase, we discuss

• What are the most common objectives/purposes of risk analyses in this phase?
• What decisions should the risk analyses provide support for?
• Which analytical methods are typically used?

The content and scope of the risk analyses in the different phases vary significantly between industries, regulatory regimes, and the level of risk associated with the facility or system being analyzed. The level of detail of the studies therefore varies accordingly. The same applies to which analytical methods that should be used.

Chapter 20 provides more information on how risk assessment is used in different industries, and the types of studies that are performed. Before looking at the individual phases, we give a brief introduction to how the life cycle phases may be defined.

18.2 Phases in the Life Cycle

There is no general agreement on how the life cycle of a product or a system should be divided into phases. Industries and companies divide the life cycle in different ways and use different terms to describe the process. Terms, such as project execution model (PEM), project execution plan, and project execution process are used, mainly by engineering ...