Introduction

In this last module we will explore how we can learn from failures. Furthermore, we will provide you with some final thoughts on the analysed case studies and let you know what happened in the real-world cases on which Modules 3 to 5 were based. We would like to stimulate you to think and discuss about the question: How can I learn from failures?

Learn from Failures

The ultimate goal of this MOOC is: learning from failures! Basically, there are three ways to learn from failures:

1. You read books and publications about failure case studies, published by others.
2. You investigate and report failures that were made by others.
3. You personally experience a failure, in a project that you were responsible for.

You can imagine that the last way is the most active, but also the most expensive and stressful way. When you are responsible for a large failure, this will usually be at the cost of at least some sleep… So, given that you were able to obtain information from earlier failures, how can you use this in future projects to avoid failures? We think that a risk management approach can be helpful for this. A risk management approach consists of the following steps:

• Identify possible hazards (something with the potential to cause harm)
• Classify risks (often defined as the product of the likelihood of a hazard and the severity of the consequences)
• Manage risks (for instance, eliminate or reduce them)
• Evaluate residual risk  (do you deem the residual risk acceptable?)

Don’t forget to classify risks for failures in all three failure carriers; product, instruction and execution.

By having extensive knowledge of technical failure mechanisms, and of potential anomalies in instructions or execution of tasks it is easier to think of potential hazards. In short: the better you know and understand all the ways in which a technical system could fail, the better you will be able to think of ways to prevent such failures.