Fault Tree Analysis and Failure Modes and Effects Analysis for Systems with Artificial Intelligence: A Mapping Study

Reliability engineering has well-established analysis techniques to design critical systems that will be safe to operate. Two already field-proven techniques are the FTA (Fault Tree Analysis) and the FMECA (Failure Modes, Effects, and Criticality Analysis). These techniques, recommended or required by several supervisory authorities or independent assessments, will continue to be the main assets for the analysis of potential failures and faults. This mapping study revisits FMECA and FTA from the perspective of how they are used when dealing with systems with Artificial Intelligence (AI) components. After the literature database search and selection, 24 primary sources were leveraged to map them regarding their context, scope, considerations, and maturity. The diversity of safety-critical application domains and functions, and the need of more evidences from the evaluations of the proposed approaches, suggest that this field requires a pressing attention. The extracted considerations can be relevant elements of industrial guidelines.