  Failure Mode Reasoning (FMR) is a method for formal analysis of
system-related faults. The method was originally developed for identifying
failure modes of safety-critical systems based on an analysis of their
programs. In this paper, we generalize the method and present a mathematical
framework for its use in model-based system and safety analyses. We explain the
concepts, formalize the method, formulate models for example systems, and
discuss the practical application of the method.
