A statistical methodology for the study of the software failure process and its application to the ARGOS center

The authors propose a stepwise statistical methodology for the study of operating system reliability and associated tools. An example of the application of this method for the ARGOS data processing center of France´s CNES is presented. It is shown that each evaluation of software reliability is considered as a special case. Two major consequences are that the reliability models need improvement and that every evaluation must be supported by a statistical analysis of the product and process characteristics.