Stochastic software safety/reliability measurement and its application

  • Authors:

  • Koichi Tokuno;Shigeru Yamada

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Social Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tottori University, Tottori‐shi 680‐8552, Japan E-mail: yamada@sse.tottori‐u.ac.jp;Department of Social Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Tottori University, Tottori‐shi 680‐8552, Japan E-mail: yamada@sse.tottori‐u.ac.jp

  • Venue:
  • Annals of Software Engineering
  • Year:
  • 1999

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Abstract

Safety and reliability have become important software quality characteristics in the development of safety‐critical software systems. However, there are so far no quantitative methods for assessing a safety‐critical software system in terms of the safety/reliability characteristics. The metrics of software safety is defined as the probability that conditions that can lead to hazards do not occur. In this paper, we propose two stochastic models for software safety/reliability assessment: the data‐domain dependent safety assessment model and the availability‐related safety assessment model. These models focus on describing the time‐ or execution‐dependent behavior of the software faults which can lead to unsafe states when they cause software failures. The application of one of these models to optimal software release problems is also discussed. Finally, numerical examples are illustrated for quantitative software safety assessment and optimal software release policies.