Pipeline components return one of the following values:
The pipeline keeps track of the worst error returned by a component upstream of now. Attached to each component (actually attached to the stage in the pipeline) is an attribute that indicates the maximum error level the component will tolerate. If the current error level is less than or equal to the maximum error level for this component, the component can then run the IPipelineComponent::Execute method.
The stage information that is passed back and forth between the Pipeline Editor and the pipeline contains a field indicating the error level for each stage.
If a component cannot load in design mode, it should not fail.