Test workload measurement and reliability analysis for large commercial software systems

  • Authors:
  • Jeff Tian;Joe Palma

  • Affiliations:
  • Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX 75275, USA;IBM Software Solutions Toronto Laboratory, 1150 Eglinton Ave. E., North York, Ontario, Canada M3C 1H7

  • Venue:
  • Annals of Software Engineering
  • Year:
  • 1997

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Abstract

This paper characterizes the testing environment for large commercial software systems, matches reliability model assumptions with the application environment, examines alternative test workload measurements that capture software usage information during testing, and uses two such measurements, test runs and transactions, as our usage dependent time measurements in reliability modeling. Our previous research using test runs, execution time, and test input information for reliability analysis and improvement is extended to ensure better test workload measurements for reliability assessment and prediction. This paper also identifies conditions under which different test workload measurements are appropriate, and presents reliability modeling results using these measurements in several products developed in the IBM Software Solutions Toronto Laboratory.