Adjusting measured field failure intensity for operational profile variation

Abstract

Failure intensity depends on the operational profile used in executing a system. Operational profiles can change, so we would like to determine the new failure intensity without the expense of actually reexecuting the system under the new operational profile. We derive a transformation for adjusting the failure intensity to the value it would have under the new operational profile. This transformation does not require that we measure operation failure intensities in the field, a requirement that would often be impractical to meet. It is only necessary to know the operational profile used in test; this information is used to estimate the operation failure intensities. The old and new field operational profiles and the estimated operation failure intensities are employed to determine the overall target failure intensity.<>