Framework for modeling software reliability, using various testing-efforts and fault-detection rates

Sy Yen Kuo*, Chin Yu Huang, Michael R. Lyu

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal Article peer-review

125 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper proposes a new scheme for constructing software reliability growth models (SRGM) based on a nonhomogeneous Poisson process (NHPP). The main focus is to provide an efficient parametric decomposition method for software reliability modeling, which considers both testing efforts and fault detection rates (FDR). In general, the software fault detection/removal mechanisms depend on previously detected/removed faults and on how testing efforts are used. From practical field studies, it is likely that we can estimate the testing efforts consumption pattern and predict the trends of FDR. A set of time-variable, testing-effort-based FDR models were developed that have the inherent flexibility of capturing a wide range of possible fault detection trends: increasing, decreasing, and constant. This scheme has a flexible structure and can model a wide spectrum of software development environments, considering various testing efforts. The paper describes the FDR, which can be obtained from historical records of previous releases or other similar software projects, and incorporates the related testing activities into this new modeling approach. The applicability of our model and the related parametric decomposition methods are demonstrated through several real data sets from various software projects. The evaluation results show that the proposed framework to incorporate testing efforts and FDR for SRGM has a fairly accurate prediction capability and it depicts the real-life situation more faithfully. This technique can be applied to a wide range of software systems.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)310-320
Number of pages11
JournalIEEE Transactions on Reliability
Volume50
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 09 2001
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Fault detection
  • Nonhomogeneous poisson process (NHPP)
  • Software faults and failures
  • Software reliability growth model (SRGM)
  • Testing-effort functions

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Framework for modeling software reliability, using various testing-efforts and fault-detection rates'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this