What is the Situation Matrix good for?

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I recently faced the question mentioned in the title: what is the Situation Matrix all about? First of all, the Matrix only makes real sense, if you are using situation catalogs. Without it, it is less useful. The rest of the answer is threefold: use it to quickly fill an empty or almost empty HARA at an early stage use it to review an existing filled HARA during a review use it to refactor an existing HARA e.g. after review Some more words on the individual scenarios. Initial Fill In this case the Matrix is used to fill the HARA with combinations of malfunction and situation. The user may select only certain situations or a set of malfunction or only a function scope. By checking an entry in the matrix, a new event is created in the HARA that represents that situation. Doing so, the safety engineer can ensure using only situations from the catalog.  Review  A reviewer may want to make sure that the engineer has used situations from the pre-defined situation catalog. The matrix uses coloring to indicated situations that are indeed from selected catalogs or aren't. Red for example means "not from the catalog". See the legend for more color codes. Refactoring Once a HARA is back from review, some refactorings may be necessary. One typical issue is that a certain situation used in the HARA is not okay or close to another one from the catalog. The HARA may contain numerous entries with the same situation. In the Matrix, the user can drag & drop situations from the catalog view to the matrix, either to single cell or to the row (initial cell) to replace a single or all occurrences of the situation. Hope that gave you an impression. Jan