Glossary · Verification and validation
Field data
Also known as: operational data, field experience data
In systems engineering and safety, field data is data from actual operation, service, incidents, and maintenance used to validate assumptions and improve controls. It closes the loop between design assumptions and real use.
- Verification
- Data and interfaces
In one sentence
Field data from operation, service and incidents tests design assumptions against reality and drives improvements to safety controls.
Example
Service reports from fifty palletizers show that operators often bypass a guard during jam clearing, which leads the manufacturer to redesign the access door and revise the operating manual.
How it applies
- Evidence: Field data can confirm or contradict operating assumptions such as demand rates, operator behavior or environmental conditions. Link findings to the assumptions and risk assessment entries they affect.
- Functional safety: Failure rates observed in the field can differ from datasheet values. Significant differences may require revisiting PL or SIL calculations.
- Technical documentation: Recurring service questions and incidents often point to unclear instructions. Feed them into the next revision of the information for use.
- Data and interfaces: Define the data format, source, timestamp and quality of field data. Unstructured free-text reports are hard to analyze and hard to trace.
Field data vs. test data
Test data come from controlled conditions before release. Field data come from real use, with real users, bypass behavior and wear, and therefore reveal what tests could not anticipate.