ISO 26262-4:2018: Product development at the system level

Name: ISO 26262-4:2018: Product development at the system level
Rating: 3.7 (34 reviews)

Plain and simple clause by clause explanation of ISO 26262-4:2018: System development with exercises (electric vehicle)

Created byAlexander Walter

Last updated 3/2025

English

English [Auto],

What you'll learn

Functional Safety
ISO 26262
Automotive Engineering
ISO 26262-4: Product development at the system level
Technical safety concept
Technical safety requirements
System architectural design
Fault tree analysis
Failure mode and effects analysis
System and item integration and testing

Course content

4 sections • 13 lectures • 1h 17m total length

Introduction3:08
Explore functional safety under ISO 26262, learn the technical safety concept, derive the system architectural design, and apply fault tree analysis and failure mode and effects analysis through testing.
What is Functional Safety?1:50
Define functional safety per ISO 26262 part one. Clarify its vocabulary: absence of unreasonable risk from hazards caused by malfunctioning behavior of electrical or electronic systems.
Overview of ISO 26262:20189:07
Introduce ISO 26262:2018 and its structure, from vocabulary and management to the system, hardware, and software development, including safety goals, HARA, ASIL, and the V-model.

Technical safety concept3:04
Explore how the technical safety concept derives and allocates technical safety requirements and system architecture, validated through integration, testing, and system-level development.
What is a system?2:37
Explore how an E system forms the vehicle function network, with sensors, logic, and actuators coordinating driver requests, ESP interventions, and torque control.
Technical safety requirements5:07
Explore how technical safety requirements derive from functional safety requirements, define signals and their directions (input/output), values, errors, traceability, and the three hardware safety matrices with budgets across components.

System architectural design9:15
Derive the system architectural design from the functional safety concept by replacing functional elements with sensors, control units, and actuators, adding redundancy, and verifying with safety analyses.
Fault-Tree-Analysis (FTA)2:12
practice fault-tree analysis from the top-down approach, deriving intermediate and basic events with or gates and end gates, using circle symbols for undeveloped events.
Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)11:38
Apply failure mode and effects analysis to identify root causes across design and process; follow the seven harmonized steps from scoping to documentation, including structure, function, failure, and risk analysis.
Technical safety concept

4-8: System and item integration and verification7:24
Explore system and item integration and testing across five objectives, including correctness of safety requirements implementation, safety mechanism functionality, interface implementation, diagnostic coverage, and robustness at multiple integration levels.
4-9: Safety validation1:20
Validate safety measures through real-life tests and validate the functional safety concept, goals, requirements, and block diagram, deriving test cases from the technical safety concept for the validation report.
Thank you for your attention!2:00
Explore how to create the technical safety concept and study the relevant aspects of ISO 26262, with notes on functional safety history and opportunities for feedback.
Bonus0:15
Explore bonus content on ISO 26262-4:2018 product development at the system level, reinforcing core concepts from the standard in practical, accessible terms.

Requirements

Recommended but not mandatory: Basic understanding of ISO 26262 and Functional Safety

Description

This course is about ISO 26262-4: Product development at the system level. All relevant clauses of this part of ISO 26262 are explained in the course. The following clauses are considered:

Clause 6: Technical safety concept
Clause 7: System architectural design
Clause 8: System and item integration and verification
Clause 9: Safety validation

The following aspects are considered in Clause 6: Technical safety concept:

The ISO 26262 V-model for the development phase
Definition of the term "system"
Characteristics and attributes of technical safety requirements

The following aspects are considered in Clause 7: System architectural design:

Relevant aspects for derivation of the system architectural design from the preliminary architectural design
Safety analyses according to ISO 26262
Explanation of the method fault tree analysis (FTA) with an example
Explanation of the method failure mode and effects analysis (FMEA) according to the VDA/AIAG handbook (7 Steps)

The following aspects are considered in Clause 8: System and item integration and testing:

Relevant integration levels
Test objectives according to ISO 26262
Test methods

The following aspects are considered in Clause 9: Safety validation:

What is the difference between verification and validation?

The course includes an exercise for clause 6 and clause 7.

In the exercises you will learn step by step how to develop the technical safety concept for an electric vehicle and the safety goal "Avoid an unintented acceleration".

A possible solution for the exercise is presented in a video.

Who this course is for:

Project Leaders
Safety Managers
System Designers
Software Developers
Hardware Developers
Test Engineers
Quality Responsibles

ISO 26262-4:2018: Product development at the system level

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Introduction3 lectures • 14min

4-6: Technical safety concept3 lectures • 11min

4-7: System architectural design3 lectures • 23min

4-8 and 4-9: System and item integration and testing4 lectures • 11min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: