A Semantic Definition of Faults and Its Implications

Abstract

Given that faults are the focus of much software quality assurance (fault avoidance, fault removal, fault tolerance, fault prediction/ forecasting), we argue that a formal definition of faults ought to help us enhance the state of the art in this field. In this paper we consider a formal semantic definition of faults, and explore the insights that this definition gives us, and how these insights can be used in practice. Some of these insights are counter-intuitive, which makes them all the more interesting/useful.