A method for supporting failure mode and effects analysis includes storing a meta-model in a computer-readable storage medium. The meta-model includes generic parts of technical systems, generic failure modes, and associations between the generic parts and the generic failure modes. The associations indicate, for each generic part, one or more generic failure modes associated with the generic part. Each generic failure mode identifies a type of failure for a respective generic part. A processor instantiates the generic parts and the generic failure modes to generate part instances and failure mode instances specifying a technical system. The part instances and the failure mode instances are stored, such as in the computer-readable storage medium.