System fault diagnosis and remedy have long been the twin Cinderellas of the system design procedure. The failure modes of systems have been the subject of little study, and knock-on effects have been largely ignored. By far the most common method of system diagnosis is "Wait until it breaks then call in the engineer". The advent of systems of systems, with complex external interfaces, means that this state of inactivity can not continue.

An initial, ad hoc study of current and impending causes of systems failure has been performed. The existing techniques have been found largely inadequate in the light of the expected expansion of system capability.

The techniques of Virtual Reality (VR) have been explored to see if they can be harnessed to give an adequate solution to the perceived shortfall in diagnostic techniques. They have been found to be suitable, and provide a solid platform for the short to medium term of systems diagnosis.