Overview of FMEA The Failure Mode and Effect Analysis (FMEA) is one underlying concept of continuous quality improvement (Black, 2002, p.25). FMEA is an abbreviation for Failure Modes and Effect Analysis. FMEA is an analytic activity carried out on a product, service or process in order to know its strengths and weaknesses, deal with a potential problem before it occurs and ensure that it meets the set requirements (Black, 2002, p.25). FMEA has its origin at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in the USA where it was used as a risk analysis and mitigation technique, however more recently; it has become widespread in industries being used to attain process improvement. FMEA is a vital tool for project teams and companies as a whole and who are faced with questions like how a failure can occur, the effect of such a failure on a system and what actions can be taken to counter such potential failures if they happen (Black, 2002, p.25). It provides a suitable approach to developing remedies to these questions. The functions of FMEA include, first, it predicts design or process related failure modes and by doing so, it works to ensure that set requirements for a process or product are met. Secondly, FMEA tests and finds out the effect and severity of a given failure mode. Thirdly, FMEAs pin point the cause and works out the probability of occurrence of a failure mode. Fourthly, it identifies a control and weighs its effectiveness; it quantifies each associated risk and ultimately arranges the risks in order of priorities. Finally, it develops and documents action plans that appear to reduce the risks involved. Test Strategy Software risks In software project management, software project are associated with many risks as their entail certain levels of uncertainty thus risk identification and its management are two aspects of these projects that are of concern. A risk is an event with the likelihood to actuate and in its actuation have a negative impact to the success of a project (Software Testing Help, 2007, p.3). Software mainly risks are of five types, namely, schedule, budget, operation, technical and programmatic risks. Schedule risks arise from schedule slip an event that occurs due to wrong estimation of time, improper tracking of resources, unexpected expansion of the project scope and when complex functionalities fail to be identified together with the time needed to develop them (Software Testing Help, 2007, p.9 – p.11). Budget risks are risks that arise due to cost overruns, wrong estimation of project budget and expansion of the project scope (Software Testing Help, 2007, p.12). Operational risks are risks that occur due to improper implementation of project processes and system failures (Software Testing Help, 2007, p.13). Causes of improper implementation of project processes and system failures are unaddressed priority conflicts, unresolved responsibilities, insufficient resources, improper subject training, lack of resource plans and lack of communication in the project team (Software Testing Help, 2007, p.14). The impact of technical risks is software malfunctioning and reduced performance and they causes are use insufficient technology, implementation complexity of a product, inconstant requirements from the product and difficult integration of project modules (Software Testing H