The purpose of this study was to support correct maintenance decisions based on fundamental principles of Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM). The origin was a need to support maintenance decisions within railway infrastructure management in general. Based on this need, a manual content analysis was performed on the originally documented source of RCM since it represents the latest paradigm shift in maintenance. Thereafter, the extracted information was compiled in supporting documentations for practitioners. The main results may be seen as the formulation of the paradigm shift that RCM represents and its implications for decision making. The result was verified by experienced RCM-practitioners and validated against relevant regulations. However, a validation by decision makers within maintenance at the initiating case study remains. Even though the concerned case study is related to railway, it is believed that the result can be applied in other application areas as well. The main reason is that RCM is developed within aviation, but is stated to be useful in other areas and has also been proven valuable in a wide range of applications all around the world.