failureverfehlen

Failureverfehlen is a term used in discussions of risk analysis and incident investigation to describe the systematic failure to observe or detect a failure event during testing, evaluation, or analysis. It highlights how certain faults or near-misses may remain hidden due to measurement limits, sampling choices, or cognitive biases, leading to an incomplete understanding of a system’s reliability.

Etymology and status: The word combines the English "failure" with the German verb verfehlen ("to miss" or "to fail to hit"), reflecting its cross-linguistic usage in bilingual discussions. It is not a widely standardized term in dictionaries or formal standards, but appears in niche reports, case studies, and theoretical discussions.

Definition and scope: Failureverfehlen refers to failures that are present but go undetected or are misattributed during testing or post-incident analysis. It is distinct from a detected failure that yields useful corrective action, and from known failures that are deliberately ignored.

Mechanisms:

- Limited instrumentation or inadequate telemetry that cannot observe certain fault modes.

- Selection bias in test cases or data sets that miss relevant conditions.

- Cognitive bias or premature conclusions guiding investigators away from subtle root causes.

- Overreliance on binary pass/fail criteria or on post-hoc reasoning.

Implications and mitigation: The concept is used to explain underestimation of risk and misallocation of resources. Mitigation strategies include improving telemetry and test coverage, designing experiments to include near-misses, promoting independent reviews, and applying probabilistic risk assessment.

Related concepts include near-miss reporting, detection bias, and failure mode and effects analysis. The term remains applied primarily in theoretical discussions or hypothetical case studies rather than as a mainstream, standardized notion.