SOFTWARE-RELIABILITY MEASUREMENT IN IMPERFECT DEBUGGING ENVIRONMENT AND ITS APPLICATION

In practice, debugging operations during the testing phase of software development are not always performed perfectly. In other words, not all the software faults detected are corrected and removed. Generally, this is called imperfect debugging. In this paper, we discuss a software reliability growth model considering imperfect debugging. Defining a random variable representing the cumulative number of faults corrected up to a specified testing time, this model is described by a semi-Markov process. Then, several quantitative measures are derived for software reliability assessment in an imperfect debugging environment. The application of this model to optimal software release problems is also discussed. Finally, numerical illustrations for software reliability measurement and optimal software release policies are presented.