Reading a bow-tie
How a bow-tie is laid out, what Order changes, orientation, the summary strip, colouring barriers by status, and what the Node Inspector and Focus branch show for each node type.
How it is laid out
- Five columns, left to right: threats, preventive barriers, the top event, recovery barriers and consequences. The hazard sits above the top event.
- Each threat and each consequence has its own row, and the barriers on its path sit in that row. Threat rows and consequence rows are counted separately, so the first threat and the first consequence line up.
- The order of the rows follows Order on the threats and on the consequences.
- Barriers on one path are stacked in their row. In an edge list they follow Order on the barrier rows; without Order they are sorted by Node ID, which may not match the path. In a register they follow the path.
- A barrier on more than one path stays in the row of the first path.
- Escalation factors and their controls sit in the barrier column, after the barriers of their row.
Nodes cannot be dragged. Change the result with Order, orientation, density and spacing.
Orientation
Every orientation is available under Diagram → Orientation. Right to left mirrors the diagram, so threats are on the right. Top to bottom puts threats at the top and consequences at the bottom, with the hazard beside the top event. Bottom to top mirrors that.
Summary strip
Turn on Labels → Summary strip → Show summary. A bow-tie counts preventive barriers and recovery barriers separately, by Status. For the edge list example the strip shows 4 preventive barriers, 3 Effective and 1 Degraded, then 3 recovery barriers, 2 Effective and 1 Failed.
- Barriers with no Status are counted under No data.
- A barrier written as Barrier whose side could not be found is not counted, and neither are escalation controls.
- Each count takes the colour your conditional formatting gives that status.
- Selecting a count highlights those barriers and fades the rest. Nothing is filtered.
Colouring barriers by status
Map Status
A column named Status, Barrier Status or Condition binds on its own.
Add a rule for each status
Under Appearance → Conditional formatting, choose Add rule. For example: When Status, Is Equal to, Value Degraded, Colour Node fill, and an amber colour.
Add threshold rules on Health if you want them
Rules compare the stored number, so with Health stored as 0.96, write Less than 0.8 rather than 80%.
Turn on the legend
Turn on Labels → Legend → Show legend. It lists your rules, so readers can decode the colours.
Equal to matches the text exactly, including capitals. A rule for Degraded does not match DEGRADED.
Showing health on the diagram
Under Labels → Value annotations, choose Add value row, pick Health and a position. The value is written beside each barrier using the column's Power BI format, so Health stored as 0.96 with a percentage format reads as a percentage.
Node Inspector
On a bow-tie, the Inspector's first section is Barrier condition, listing Status and Health. The Relationships section depends on what is selected. Select a name to move to that node; where several nodes are related, the row shows how many and lists up to eight.
| Selected | Relationships |
|---|---|
| Preventive barrier | Protects against: the threats whose paths it is on. Prevents: the top event. Escalation factors: factors that weaken it. |
| Recovery barrier | Limits: the consequences whose paths it is on. Follows: the top event. Escalation factors: factors that weaken it. |
| Threat | Preventive barriers: the barriers on its path. Leads to: the top event. |
| Consequence | Recovery barriers: the barriers on its path. Results from: the top event. |
| Top event | Hazard. Threats. Consequences. Barriers: the number of barriers on all paths. |
| Hazard | Top event. |
| Escalation factor | Degrades: the barrier it weakens. Controlled by: its controls. |
| Escalation-factor control | Addresses: its escalation factor. |
Focus branch
Select a node and choose Focus branch in the Inspector. The top event and the hazard always stay prominent; what else stays depends on the node.
| Focused | Also stays prominent |
|---|---|
| Threat | Its path: its preventive barriers. |
| Consequence | Its path: its recovery barriers. |
| Preventive or recovery barrier | Every path the barrier is on, and the escalation factors and controls on those paths' barriers. |
| Escalation factor or control | The barrier it weakens and every path that barrier is on. |
| Top event or hazard | The whole bow-tie. |









