System and method for automated problem diagnosis

A computer-readable storage medium, comprising program instructions computer-executable for performing automated diagnosis for a system by:

• providing a fault tree representation of the system, said fault tree representation indicating hierarchical cause and effect relationships between system events including propagations of errors generated in the system by problems to produce error reports, at least some of said propagations having timing information associated therewith;
• receiving one or more error reports having timing information associated therewith;
• analyzing the received one or more error reports using the fault tree representation to determine one or more suspected problems, said suspected problems comprising those problems that could have generated errors to produce the received error reports compatible with the propagations in the fault tree representation, and consistent with the timing information associated with the propagations and the received error reports;
• and
• producing one or more suspect lists dependent on said analyzing.