Bow-Tie Diagrams in Power BI
A Power BI bow-tie visual that builds the diagram from your own data or an existing barrier register, with threats and preventive barriers on the left, consequences and recovery barriers on the right and the top event in the middle. Every path is checked, and barrier status can be counted above the diagram.
Part of Ataytis Assurance, with all six analysis modes in one visual. 30-day free trial, licensed and billed through Microsoft Marketplace.
Built from a barrier register
Threat, Barrier and Consequence columns are enough to draw one, and a Top Event column names the centre. The bow-tie is built from the names, with no node IDs to invent.
Escalation factors included
Conditions that weaken a barrier are drawn beside its path, together with the controls that manage them.
Barrier status at a glance
Colour rules on Status or Health, and a summary strip that counts preventive and recovery barriers by status.
About the method
What is a bow-tie diagram?
A bow-tie diagram, also written bowtie diagram, shows one top event, the moment control of a hazard is lost, with the threats that could cause it on one side and the consequences that could follow on the other. The barriers between them show what prevents the event and what limits its effects, which makes it a common way to explain and manage controls.
Also known as
- Bowtie diagram
- Bow-tie analysis
- Bowtie risk assessment
Common uses include
- Process safety
- Operational risk
- Cybersecurity risk
- Barrier management
- Health, safety and environment
- Project and business risk
Bow-tie diagrams can be used wherever one unwanted event needs to be understood together with its causes, its consequences and the controls on both sides.
Every bow-tie in one table
Keep a bow-tie for every hazard in one register, with a Diagram ID column to tell them apart. A slicer or the diagram picker switches between them, and each one is rebuilt from its own rows, with threats, barriers and consequences laid out for you.
Follow one path through a review
Click a consequence and the Node Inspector lists its recovery barriers and the top event it results from. Focus branch fades everything else, so a review can follow one path at a time.
Every path checked
Each threat must reach the top event through its barriers, each consequence must start from it, and every escalation factor must weaken a barrier. Anything that does not is listed on the Validation tab, and Show node takes you straight to it.
Your data
Start with a simple barrier register
Seven rows: two threats with their preventive barriers, two consequences with their recovery barriers, and the top event named on every row. Columns with other names are mapped once in the editor, and Health goes in Values, set to Don't summarize.
| Threat | Barrier | Order | Top Event | Consequence | Status | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Internal corrosion | Inspection programme | 1 | Loss of containment | Effective | 0.96 | |
| Internal corrosion | Internal coating | 2 | Loss of containment | Degraded | 0.71 | |
| Overpressure | High-pressure alarm | 3 | Loss of containment | Effective | 0.99 | |
| Overpressure | Relief valve | 4 | Loss of containment | Effective | 0.98 | |
| Gas detection | 1 | Loss of containment | Jet fire | Effective | 0.98 | |
| Deluge system | 2 | Loss of containment | Jet fire | Failed | 0.42 | |
| Automatic isolation | 3 | Loss of containment | Environmental release | Effective | 0.95 |
What it draws
Every part of a bow-tie
IEC 31010:2019, the IEC standard on risk assessment techniques, includes bow-tie analysis among its techniques for analysing controls. It gives an example diagram but no set of symbols, so Ataytis Assurance draws bow-ties in a consistent notation of its own: threats as triangles, barriers as rounded rectangles, the top event as a diamond and consequences as parallelograms. Colours, symbols and names can all be changed.
Paths
- Hazard
- Threat
- Preventive barrier
- Top event
- Recovery barrier
- Consequence
Escalation
- Escalation factor
- Escalation-factor control
Table shapes
- Barrier register
- Edge list
Validation
Checked against the rules of the method as you build
The Validation tab lists anything that breaks these rules and where it is, so the diagram is right before it reaches a review.
- Exactly one top event
- Every threat path reaches the top event
- Every consequence path starts from the top event
- Preventive barriers on the threat side, recovery barriers on the consequence side
- A barrier on every threat and consequence path
- Every escalation factor has a control
- Every node is connected to the bow-tie
- No cycles
Getting started
From your table to bow-ties in a report
Install from Marketplace
In Power BI Desktop, open Get more visuals, search for Ataytis Assurance, and add it.
Add your table
Put Threat, Barrier, Order, Top Event and Consequence in Data fields and Health in Values, or use an edge list with Node ID and Connected Node ID.
Choose Bow-Tie Risk Analysis
Select the visual, open More options (…) and choose Edit, then pick Bow-Tie Risk Analysis in the Diagram type list on the left.
Licence it to publish
Power BI Desktop needs no licence. Readers in the Power BI Service do, with the first 30 days free.
Pricing
One licence includes all six analysis modes
Bow-Tie Risk Analysis is included alongside Fault Tree Analysis, Event Tree Analysis, Reliability Block Diagram, Goal Structuring Notation and Markov State Diagram. Ataytis Assurance is licensed per user: $4.99 per user per month for small teams, dropping to $2.49 for 500 users or more. The first month is free on every plan, billed by Microsoft.
Licensing a large team or a whole organisation? Request an enterprise quote
Also in Ataytis Assurance
The other analysis modes in the same visual
Every licence includes all six. Switch mode in the editor, and each one keeps its own mapping, layout and look.
Fault Tree Analysis
How could this top event happen?
Explore fault treesEvent Tree Analysis
What follows an initiating event, and how often?
Explore event treesReliability Block Diagram
Does the system keep working when parts of it fail?
Explore reliability block diagramsGoal Structuring Notation
Does the argument for a claim hold together?
Explore goal structuresMarkov State Diagram
How does a system move between states over time?
Explore Markov diagramsQuestions
Bow-Tie Risk Analysis questions
Your next bow-tie, in Power BI
Build it in Power BI Desktop with no licence and nothing to sign up for. A licence only comes into it when the report is published for others to open.