| Linguistic | Level Definition |
Severity | VL | Very minor effect. |
L | Small effect.-Product does not require repair. | |
M | Moderate effect.-Product requires repair. | |
H | Product performance is severely affected. | |
VH | System is inoperable. System operation is suspended. | |
Occurrence | VL | Failure does not seem reasonable. |
L | Fairly few failures. | |
M | Infrequent failures. | |
H | Frequent failures. | |
VH | Failure is almost unavoidable. | |
Detection | VL | Controls probably will not detect. |
L | Controls may not detect. | |
M | Controls are able to detect. | |
H | Controls are able to detect and have high impact. | |
VH | Controls will detect and have very high impact. |