Study on the relationship between software test effectiveness and software reliability demonstration testing

This paper analyzed the definition of software testability and its effect on software reliability test set. The conception of test effectiveness was proposed and the quantity model of minimal sample size in the software reliability demonstration testing (SRDT) introduced test effectiveness was put forward. Then the difference between the number of test cases with different test effectiveness was compared. It was demonstrated that the traditional method and the Bayesian method without prior knowledge were all the conditions where the test effectiveness equaled to zero and gave the most conservative value. Finally, the improved method combining with the test effectiveness was recommended. From the demonstration, the rationality of the method was suggested, which provided a new way to improve the efficiency of the SRDT method and ensure the higher reliability requirement.