Abstract: A hybrid parallel/serial alarm management system in which sensor signals are intelligently processed to produce abnormality indication signals. The abnormality indication signals are divided into groups defined by functions of the system being monitored and are used to generate abnormality messages according to goal violation, process disturbance and process unavailability requirements for each function. Within each goal, process and support category the messages are ranked according to a predetermined local priority and chronologically within the same priority. Each function includes a spatially dedicated parallel display location which displays the highest priority portion of each category of messages associated with each function. The messages not displayed on the parallel display are displayed on a serial display unit in ranked order by category within function.