Projecting software defects from analyzing Ada designs

Author

Agresti, William W. ; Evanco, William M.

Author_Institution

Mitre Corp., McLean, VA, USA

Volume

18

Issue

11

fYear

1992

fDate

11/1/1992 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

988

Lastpage

997

Abstract

Models for projecting software defects from analyses of Ada designs are described. The research is motivated by the need for technology to analyze designs for their likely effect on software quality. The models predict defect density based on product and process characteristics. Product characteristics are extracted from a static analysis of Ada subsystems, focusing on context coupling, visibility, and the import-export of declarations. Process characteristics provide for effects of reuse level and extent of changes. Multivariate regression analyses were conducted with empirical data from industry/government-developed projects: 16 Ada subsystems totaling 149000 source lines of code. The resulting models explain 63-74% of the variation in defect density of the subsystems. Context coupling emerged as a consistently significant variable in the models

Keywords

Ada; software metrics; software quality; software reliability; statistical analysis; Ada designs; context coupling; defect density; import-export of declarations; process characteristics; regression analyses; reuse level; software defects projection; software quality; static analysis; visibility; Context modeling; Data mining; Government; Maintenance; Multivariate regression; Predictive models; Q factor; Software design; Software quality; Software reliability;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Software Engineering, IEEE Transactions on

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0098-5589

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/32.177368

Filename

177368