Estimation of Parameters for S-shaped Software Reliability Growth Models According to Data Collected During Previous Releases

This article is devoted to the selection of parameters for software reliability modeling. This article considers the process of selecting the parameters for S-shaped growth model of software reliability based on data on failures in previous releases, compares the accuracy of the model at different ways of selection parameters. Goel-Okumoto model is used as basic model. This model is based on data on failures in the program over a certain period of time. In order to obtain appropriate estimates using this model a certain amount of failure data, which are not available until the system has been tested for a long enough period of time, is required. Statistical data collected for three consecutive releases of the software industry scale are used as experimental data. Evaluation of mode parameters is performed by using maximum likelihood function.

Keywords

software reliability, software reliability growth models, Goel-Okumoto S-shaped model.

References

1. Musa J.D., Iannino A., Okumoto K. Software Reliability Measurement, Prediction, Application. New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1987. 621 p.
2. Lyu M. Handbook of Software Reliability Engineering. New York, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1996
3. Xie M., Hong G.Y., Wohlin C. Software Reliability Prediction Incorporating Information from a Similar Project. Journal of Software and Systems, 1999, vol. 49,no. 1, pp. 43-48.
4. Goel A.L., Okumoto K. A Time Dependent Error Detection Model for Software Reliability and Other Performance Measures. IEEE Trans. Reliability, 1979,vol. R-28, pp. 206-211.
5. Wood A. Software Reliability Growth Models. Avialable at: http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/tandem/TR-96.1.pdf.
6. Morgan J.A., Knafl G.J. Residual Fault Density Prediction Using Regression Methods. Proc. of the 7th Int. Symp. on Software Reliabilty Engineering. New York, IEEE Computer Press, 1996, pp. 87-92.
7. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia / Mean Absolute Percentage Error. Avialable at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_absolute_percentage_error.