Toward a more reliable theory of software reliability

Author

Whittaker, James A. ; Voas, Jeffrey

Author_Institution

Dept. of Comput. Sci., Florida Inst. of Technol., Melbourne, FL, USA

Volume

33

Issue

12

fYear

2000

fDate

12/1/2000 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

36

Lastpage

42

Abstract

The notions of time and the operational profile incorporated into software reliability are incomplete. Reliability should be redefined as a function of application complexity, test effectiveness, and operating environment. We do not yet have a reliability equation that application complexity, test effectiveness, test suite diversity, and a fuller definition of the operational profile. We challenge the software reliability community to consider these ideas in future models. The reward for successfully doing so likely will be the widespread adoption of software reliability prediction by the majority of software publishers.

Keywords

program testing; software metrics; software reliability; application complexity; future models; operating environment; operational profile; reliability equation; reliability prediction; reliable theory; software publishers; software reliability; test effectiveness; test suite diversity; Aerospace testing; Computer industry; Embedded software; Hardware; Reliability theory; Software measurement; Software quality; Software reliability; Software testing; Telecommunications;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Computer

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9162

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/2.889091

Filename

889091