A SOFTWARE-RELIABILITY ASSESSMENT MODEL

Since 1985 MATRA Defense has expended considerable internal effort in the field of assessment models as applied to software prediction (Ref. 1). The reason for this effort is the necessity to find a better approach than reliability growth models, which in the case of large systems come too late to meet availability and/or safety design goals. For hardware there exist Prediction models such as those included in the Mil-HDBK-217. For software there is nothing. This paper presents an original approach to software prediction based on previous studies conducted under Rome Laboratories' (formerly RADC) contracts. In the model presented, we perform tradeoffs analysis on the software architecture taking into account the future operational use of the studied software. We also discuss the organization and the amount of effort spent on the development. The results of this model can be compared with growth-model results in future development steps. This model has been applied to industrial developments so we are in a Position to discuss the advantages and limitations of its present version. One example of this is presented in this paper.