4. Methods and tools

After the above considerations, it's time to look at how the body of modeling methods and tools developed over the last fifty years can meet these needs.

Broadly speaking, it can be divided into three distinct categories: "basic", "static" and "dynamic" methods. It is not our intention to describe them in detail here, but to compare them briefly in order to highlight their respective merits, and to draw attention to a few difficulties when implementing them in the context that interests us here.

• Some of the best-known basic methods include :

  • functional" analysis;

  • preliminary risk analysis (PRA) ;

  • FMEA (Failure Mode, Effect and Criticality Analysis)