Failure Modes and Effects Analysis (FMEA) is a Total Quality Management (TQM) technique that is designed to identify and fully understand potential project failure modes and their causes. 6SigmaPM applies FMEA to the project management process.

Various research studies have identified the typical failure causes for projects. 6SigmaPM includes a set of questionnaires designed to determine which of the typical failure causes are contributing to a project's success or failure. The outcome of these questionnaire's is a recommended set of corrective actions that should be implemented by the project team to improve project execution and increase the probability of project success.