Effect of Residual Defect Density on Software Release Management

In Global markets the competition has increased dramatically. This has resulted on the need for software development firms to produce at a lower cost, with higher quality and within shorter time frames. The focus must clearly be put on the customer and the objective must not simply be to satisfy, but to delight. This can only be accomplished by providing the right system and executing the pertinent project(s) in the right way. In industry, information on defect density of a product tends to become available too late in the software development process to affordably guide corrective actions. An important step towards remediation of the problem associated with this late information lies in the ability to provide an early estimation of defect density. The residual defect density of a software product can often only be estimated, based on the number of user complaints. The number of complaints does not just depend on the residual defect density, it also depends on the number of users, and the amount and duration of actual usage. The identification and removal of software defects constitutes the basis of the software testing process, a fact that inevitably places increased emphasis on defect related software measurements. The stochastic parameters of the proposed system with specific system boundaries under a given environment have been estimated using simulation.

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