Preliminary Hazard Analysis

Preliminary hazard analysis, or PHA, is an early-stage, qualitative technique for identifying the hazards inherent in a system before its design is detailed enough for more rigorous methods, and for ranking those hazards so that the riskiest receive attention first. Conducted in the concept or preliminary design phase, it works from the system's energy sources, hazardous materials, intended functions and operating environment to compile a hazard list, postulate how each hazard could lead to harm, and assign each a risk level from severity and likelihood ratings. The CCPS Guidelines for Hazard Evaluation Procedures present it as a foundational hazard-evaluation method, and ISO/IEC 31010 includes it among standard risk-assessment techniques. Because it is applied when changing the design is still cheap, the PHA's chief value is steering early design decisions and identifying which hazards warrant deeper study by methods such as HAZOP, FMEA or quantitative risk assessment.