Patent ID: 8832657

Claim:
A method of selecting an outcome corresponding to the presentation of two or more qualitative inputs, said inputs being members of one or more well-ordered sets, the method comprising: storing in computer readable memory one or more tables correlating combinations of inputs to outcomes; electronically receiving at least two of the inputs, wherein the presentation of the inputs is accomplished through a fault tree analytical model (“FTAM”), wherein the inputs comprise at least one root cause of a fault, wherein the root cause is a high level of design complexity; and retrieving from computer readable memory the outcome that corresponds to the at least two inputs, wherein said outcome is obtained through the application of at least one pre-defined result table specifying the possible inputs and at least one necessary outcome, wherein the outcome selected comprises a gate modification of the at least one pre-defined result table, and wherein the gate modification reflects the results of data mining on historical data relating, at least in part, to the one root cause of the fault.