The alarm dilemma is about balancing the probability of missed alarms with that of improper alarms. The designer need to trade between two kinds of risks, as follows:
Safety problem |
Solution |
New risks |
| The system might not generate an alarm , because the alarm threshold is too high | Define lower alarm threshold | The system might generate too many nuisance alarms |
| Operators often ignore alarm, because there are too many of them, normally when there is no real hazard | Define higher alarm threshold | The system might not generate an alarm when it is needed. |
Updated on 19 Apr 2016.