12.3.3  Types of Service Failure

(a)  Service Failures are essentially divided into two categories, Availability Failures and Quality Failures.

(b)  Availability Failures are failures that render one or more functional areas or units of the facility unavailable for use in accordance with its intended function. 'Unavailable' in this context means either that government is unable to use the area because of the failure or can use it but not at the specification required.

(c)  Some jurisdictions also include a further category of Service Failure, called an 'Incident Failure', which occurs when one or more functional areas or units of the facility is affected, but where this does not result in the functional area or unit being unavailable for use in accordance with its intended function.

(d)  Quality Failures are failures that are not referrable to a specific area in or unit of the facility. In some jurisdictions, Quality Failures will accumulate failure points. The number of failure points accumulated will depend on the severity of the failure.