The MORT user’s manual contains a set of questions to help investigators guide their inquiries. The MORT chart is a worksheet drawn to help navigate the questions and record the answers.

MORT The Management Oversight and Risk Tree

The MORT system was written-up by W.G. Johnson under the title "MORT - the Management Oversight & Risk Tree" (SAN 821-2, February 1973). "Tree" refers to the logic diagram that was developed as a graphical index to the MORT document. The MORT tree (also called the MORT chart) was designed to allow people to apply the knowledge contained in SAN 821-2 in a methodical way.

To help new users apply MORT to investigation, another text was prepared - the MORT User's Manual. This distilled the 450-page main text of SAN 821-2 into a 42-page question set. This question set contains more than 120 specific references to the contents of SAN 821-2, and it is clear that the User's Manual was intended to accompany rather than to replace the SAN document. In practice, however, SAN 821-2 has become disassociated from the MORT chart and MORT User's Manual.

As well as a question set, the MORT User’s Manual explains how to conduct Energy Trace and Barrier Analysis. ETBA is integral to applying MORT, but can also be used as a stand alone method.