R.A. Stephans and W.W. Talso
System Safety Society

The purpose of this tutorial is to discuss the System Safety Analysis Handbook and how it supports the discipline of System Safety. The Handbook is intended to aid a formal, systematic, and structured approach to the identification, evaluation and elimination or mitigation of potential hazards in the safety analysis process.

This tutorial will include:

• A walk-through of the System Safety Analysis Handbook

• A discussion of the application of the system safety process

• A discussion of the available techniques and methodologies that are useful tools for the process of developing safety assessments and safety analyses.

The Handbook is intended to be a reference for all safety practitioners (both new and experienced) and any others who may become involved in the safety evaluation of policies, plans, processes, products, services, or other activities. Practitioners may include program managers who want to better understand the program safety activities involved and what safety may mean to resource allocation and planning. It is hoped that this Handbook will assist all of us by being a "one-stop" source for many different concepts and ideas. Some of the techniques listed have been developed for very specific problems; others are intended to be a broad approach to a wide variety of problems. Some are quantitative and some are qualitative. Some are inductive and some are deductive. In any case, they represent a means of broadening the horizons of the analyst, and hopefully will result in better and more effective safety practices and programs. The Handbook describes, in a summary manner with references for further research, the following subjects: a. 101 safety methodologies and techniques; b. management and use of system safety data; c. a discussion of fuzzy logic as applied to safety; d. several Government approaches to safety analysis and risk assessment; e. process safety management, to include a comparison of OSHA vs. EPA requirements; f. Software Systems Safety Engineering g. sources of safety training; h. references, to include a suggested reading list; i. a Glossary of safety and related terms; j. sources for risk assessment software application programs