Their model, when used on the second release, showed type I and type II misclassification rates of 21.7 percent and 19.1 percent, respectively, and an overall misclassification rate of 21.0 percent. A limitation of this model is that it cannot be applied when one does not have the initial number of faults and the failure rate function at execution time t. In the JM model, the initial number of software faults is unknown but fixed, and the times between the discovery of failures are exponentially distributed. Software reliability, like hardware reliability, is defined as the probability that the software system will work without failure under specified conditions and for a specified period of time (Musa, 1998).
In Box 9-1, we provide short descriptions of the classical reliability growth models and some limitations of each approach. Ananda Sen provided a review of recent developments in modeling and statistical inference for reliability growth. In typical modern applications of reliability growth theory, a system’s reliability is improved through a series of test, analyze, and fix (TAAF) episodes. Reliability growth modeling is a collection of techniques that attempt to model the (hoped-for) increasing reliability of a system as a function of the time spent in development and other relevant variables. Reliability growth modeling has historically played a role in helping to determine whether a system in development is likely to meet reliability requirements in time for graduation to the next development phase, and eventually to operational testing. Sen focused his presentation on systems for which the relevant data input into reliability growth models consists of successive times to failure (that is, total test time).
Software Reliability Models: A Brief Review and Some Concerns
The modeling and measurement of reliability across environments of use is a complicated but important problem. Markov models require transition probabilities from state to state where the states are defined by the current values of key variables that define the functioning of the software system. Using these transition probabilities, a stochastic model is created and analyzed for stability.
Thus, a decision based on our model can save the software developers as much as 35% in terms of the cost. When the failure process is modeled by a nonhomogeneous Poisson process with a mean value function, , a popular cost structure [15, 25, 27, 39] is applied aswhere is the release time of the software to be determined. In addition, is the expected cost of removing a fault during the testing phase, is the expected cost of removing a fault during the operation phase, and is the expected reliability growth model cost per unit time of testing. Specifically, the expected cost of removing a fault during the operation phase is higher than that during the testing phase; that is, . Overall, the above cost function is the summation of the testing cost, including the failure cost during testing and actual cost of testing, and the cost of failure in the field. In this work, we propose a new model that incorporates a power-law testing-effort function and three generations of interdependent errors.
The next two sections look at common DoD models for reliability growth and at DoD applications of growth models. The discussion in these two sections addresses analytical objectives, underlying assumptions, and practical implementation and interpretation concerns. A (basic) straight-line fitting with certain plane points is more persuasive and has more empirical power than the fact that the points may be approximated by a higher-order curve (not simple). Similarly, for Apache 2.0.39, the reliability level is higher than 0.95 only if if the type-I reliability definition is taken (or for the type-II reliability definition). When both reliability and cost are considered, we find that for the type-I reliability definition (or for the type-II reliability definition).
The reliability of the system is estimated on the basis of the number of faults in each complexity level (high, moderate, low) of the software. Based models, which we believe have important advantages as tools for predicting software reliability of a system. I have simplified reliability growth modelling here to give you a basic understanding of the concept. If you wish to use these models, you have to go into much more depth and develop an understanding of the mathematics underlying these models and their practical problems. Littlewood and Musa (Littlewood, 1990, Abdel-Ghaly et al., 1986)(Musa, 1998) have written extensively on reliability growth models and Kan (Kan, 2003) has an excellent summary in his book. Various authors have described their practical experience of the use of reliability growth models (Ehrlich et al., 1993, Schneidewind and Keller, 1992, Sheldon et al., 1992).
Software reliability growth models
7 The power law model can be used to represent the reliability of bad as old systems, as in Ascher (1968). The first model is the nonhomogeneous Poisson process formulation6 with a particular specification of a time-varying intensity function λ(T). In all of the model demos I’ve seen so far, the model is chosen and fitted to the data after the fact.
Here, the questions concerning the validity of reliability growth models are of the greatest concern because extrapolation is a more severe test than interpolation. Consequently, the panel does not support the use of these models for such predictions, absent a comprehensive validation. If such a validation is carried out, then the panel thinks it is likely that it will regularly demonstrate the inability of such models to predict system reliability past the very near future. Reliability growth models can be used to plan the scope of developmental tests, specifically, how much testing time should be devoted to provide a reasonable opportunity for the system design to mature sufficiently in developmental testing (U.S. Department of Defense, 2011b, Ch. 5). Intuitively, key factors in such a determination should include the reliability goal to be achieved by the end of developmental testing (say, RG), the anticipated initial system reliability at the beginning of developmental testing (say, RI), and the rate of growth during developmental testing. 11 For a specific extension of the methodologies based on the primary power law process, Crow (1983) captures the effect of unobserved failure modes by assuming that a second power law representation governs the first times to failure for all individual failure modes, both observed and unobserved.
Reliability
growth is related to factors such as the management strategy toward
taking corrective actions, effectiveness of the fixes, reliability
requirements, the initial reliability level, reliability funding and
competitive factors. For example, one management team may take
corrective actions for 90% of the failures seen during testing, while
- Because
of these deficiencies the initial reliability of the prototypes may be
below the system’s reliability goal or requirement. - Similar categorizations describe families of discrete reliability growth models (see, e.g., Fries and Sen, 1996).
- Following the taxonomy and guidelines for conducting and reporting case studies in software engineering by Runeson and Höst (2009), the presented study is an interpretive case study using a fixed design principle.
- Also as mentioned above, once the parts and engines have outlived the warranty, problems in collecting data can become more prevalent.
- You can then analyze the data to combine each of these individual systems into a single «superposition» system.
- In order to evaluate our proposed model, we compare its performance with other existing models by doing experiments with actual software failure data, that is, three versions of Apache.
another management team with the same design and test information may
take corrective actions on only 65% of the failures seen during testing. Different management strategies may attain different reliability values
with the same basic design.
It is transformed to system reliability targets for individual developmental testing events. The number of these events and the respective allocation of testing hours across individual events are variables that planners can adjust. The final developmental testing reliability goal (in Figure 4-2, 90 hours mean time between failures) is higher than the assumed operational reliability of the initial operational test and evaluation (81 hours mean time between operational mission failures or a 10 percent reduction). This difference can accommodate potential failure modes that are unique to operational testing (sources of the developmental test/operational test [DT/OT] gap).