Patent ID: 7516025

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: a processor; and a memory comprising program instructions executable by the processor to implement a data structure representing a fault tree for a system; wherein said data structure comprises indications of a plurality of events; wherein the indications of the events are linked in the data structure according to propagations in the fault tree, each event being classified as one of at least three possible event types: a problem event, representing an underlying cause of misbehaviour in the system; an error event, representing an error in the system comprising an incorrect signal or datum; and a report event, representing the formal detection by the system of an error; wherein at least one of each of the at least three possible three event types are indicated in said data structure; wherein each propagation in the fault tree denotes a cause and effect linkage from one event to another event; and wherein there are no propagations within the fault tree to a problem event.