Software reliability estimation of gamma failure time models

Abstract

With the increasing role of software in every field, concern has grown over the quality of software products. One such measure of software quality is the reliability, which is the probability of failure-free operation of a computer program in a specified environment for a specified time. Prior to the release of software, failure data are obtained during testing, using which, future reliability of software can be assessed. Reliability assessment can be done using various measures like Mean Time To Failure, failure intensity function, mean value function, etc. To assess the reliability, one should have a mathematical model that describes the behavior of failure with time. Such models are called software reliability models. Several classes of software reliability models have been defined based on the failure time distribution. One such class of models is the gamma failure time models, where failure times are assumed to follow gamma distribution. In this paper, software reliability estimates of gamma failure time models have been obtained using the method of Maximum Likelihood Estimation and method of Minimum Variance Unbiased Estimation. Using these methods, reliability of the software at a future time point can be estimated. Case studies have been considered to compare the two estimates. © 2016 IEEE.