Holistic failure analysis means you think about the context of the investigation before you take any actions in the physical world that could decrease the chances of figuring out what happened. That’s why evidence preservation is at the top, and critical thinking, which is essentially about confirming the context of the situation, is at the center. Confirming the context must be part of every subsequent step of the investigation.
But confirming the context is difficult.
In order to confirm the context, you must know how to see what’s relevant, and know how to evaluate what the data that is coming to you. Should you consider the data confidence inspiring, or suspicious? How do you figure it out?
Developing a habit of comparing and contrasting the things and ideas that enter your consciousness will help you evaluate those data more effectively.
All six of the steps in the small inner circle will help you do the necessary critical thinking that will set the stage for the proper planning and collection of data and evidence, proper evaluation of the data, leading you to awareness of what data is more or less reliable. This will help you communicate your findings in a more confidence inspiring manner. These are the foundations of holistic failure analysis.
Then you will be able to evaluate the effect of the environment and stresses on the component. It will be clear to you whether the micro – meso – macro level structures were what were anticipated for the component or structure in question, or whether something went wrong and the structures were not what was anticipated and planned for by the designers.
Classifying the damage is 95% (loosely!) of what other so-called failure analysis courses, books and guides focus on. But if you are not thinking clearly, even if you master the technical content, your results will not be reliably reliable!
Is the “crack” in this food container a “failure”? An important part of holistic failure analysis is using the best and clearest terminology we can muster!