Applied FuSa

The Podcast for Functional Safety Pragmatists

Since 07/2025 4 episodes

The Role of the FSM

You'll be surprised

2025-08-26 16 min Season 1 Episode 4

Description & Show Notes

Hello and welcome to a new episode of “Applied FuSa,” the podcast for FuSa pragmatists!

The role of the Functional Safety Manager (FSM) established itself shortly after the first version of ISO 26262 was published in 2011. Usually, this role is explicitly assigned in safety-relevant projects—meaning a single employee takes on the role of FSM.

And yet, to our surprise, the role of the FSM is not defined anywhere in ISO 26262.

“What??”

You heard that right: The role of Functional Safety Manager does not exist in ISO 26262. But there is the role of Safety Manager.

“Isn’t that the same thing?”

No, not really.

In this episode, we will compare the role of the Safety Manager with the widely established role of the FSM. We will also look at if and how ISO 26262 defines responsibilities and accountabilities for work products like the Safety Plan, the Development Interface Agreement (DIA), and the Safety Case.

Transcript

Moderator

00:00:01

Hello and welcome to a new episode of “Applied FuSa,” the podcast for FuSa pragmatists!

Expert

00:01:06

The topic is complex. So, I would like to start with a brief overview of this episode. Let’s begin by looking at the role of the FSM as it has been established in many companies since the first publication of the safety standard in 2011. So let’s turn to that topic for a moment. Let us now examine to what extent ISO 26262 actually defines responsibility for those work products for which the FSM role is assigned ownership—before we conclude with a comparative evaluation of the two roles. Let’s begin with the Safety Plan. Part 2, Clauses 6.4.5 and 6.4.13 define requirements for the Safety Plan. However, there is no indication there of who is responsible for the Safety Plan. Only the required contents are specified. Requirements for the Development Interface Agreement can be found in Part 8. An initial indication of responsibility for the safety manager is found in Note 1 to Clause 5.2: The requirements for the Safety Case contain no indication as to which role should assume responsibility or ownership for this work product. However, it is clear that the safety manager is at least responsible, since the development of the Safety Case must always be planned, coordinated, and monitored. ISO 26262 does not specify which role should assume responsibility or ownership for the Release for Production Report. Both questions remain completely open. However, it is clear once again that the safety manager must at least assume responsibility—that is, planning, coordination, and monitoring of the development of this report. The Tool Evaluation and Qualification Report actually consists of two work products according to ISO 26262: the Software Tool Criteria Evaluation Report and the Software Tool Qualification Report. However, it has proven pragmatic to combine both reports into a single Tool Evaluation and Qualification Report. A Competence Management Report is intended to provide the “evidence for competence management” required in Part 2, Chapter 5, Clause 5.5. Who is responsible for creating this report is not defined. However, since this is once again a cross-competence activity, it makes sense for the FSM to be responsible for its creation. In other words, the FSM assumes ownership. This is exactly how it is handled in many companies. Last but not least: the Confirmation Measures Plan. Here, ISO 26262 makes an exception, because very clear requirements are defined regarding the independence of the person who is to carry out each individual confirmation measure. Confirmation measures are, as is well known, either confirmation reviews of specific work products or functional safety (FS) audits or assessments. That covers the question of which responsibilities ISO 26262 defines for the safety manager regarding the work products for which the FSM is generally expected to assume ownership. Now, let’s move on to a final evaluation.

Moderator

00:15:32

Applied FuSa – a podcast for Functional Safety pragmatists. Get your new piece of FuSa every other week.