Multi-release software reliability growth assessment: an approach incorporating fault reduction factor and imperfect debugging

Abstract

In the last few decades, a plenty of software reliability growth models with diverse parameters have been formulated and proposed to assess software trustworthiness. Fault reduction factor (FRF) is one such significant factor which has been incorporated in numerous reliability modelling researches in past and results have proved its importance on reliability growth phenomenon. To keep pace with rising demands of the market, software development firms keep upgrading their products in terms of new features and by providing rectification of previously reported defects. In this paper, an SRGM based on NHPP integrating imperfect debugging and time-variable FRF is proposed for multi-release software systems. The model is then tested on the failure datasets of multiple releases of Tandem Computers and Firefox OSS. The experimental results for each release are compared with their corresponding perfect debugging model. Results illustrate that the proposed model fits the failure data well, outperforming perfect debugging model.