This paper presents a discussion of the dependability issues related to the design of mission critical systems which utilize standards based elements. A system level perspective is taken in the analysis which examines the collective operation of system elements and the impact of dependability. The implications of frameworks, fault models, and fault containment properties are discussed. An approach for dependable system design is proposed which incorporates the evaluations of various standards. A technique based on the use of option trees identifies the desired design space for which different design candidates can be proposed. A set of filters derived from system requirements are used to prune the option trees. Since our focus is primarily related to dependability aspects, the selection of filters is related to attributes affecting reliability and fault tolerance. © 1995, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved.