Software Reliability Modelling

ABSTRACT This chapter commences with an explanation of the potential usefulness of software reliability models and then describes three of the better known models that were developed during the 1970s. It is argued that these and similar models have had only modest success because they simply hypothesize a failure time distribution and take no account of the manner in which software is tested. Several models that do take testing into account are then discussed and it is shown that these models offer distinct advantages (both in terms of performance and applications) over the earlier models. The chapter also discusses current issues relating to the assessment of the performance of software reliability models.

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