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Software Quality Assurance

Đảm bảo chất lượng phần mềm
Lecture 8: Software Reliability

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Contents
• Definition of Reliability
• Reliability Criteria
• Operation Profile

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8.1. Reliability

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Definition of Reliability (1)
• The probability of failure-free operation of a software
system for a specified time in a specified environment
• The key elements:
• Probability of failure free operation
• Length of time of failure free operation
• A given execution environment

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Definition of Reliability (2)
• Failure intensity is a measure of the reliability of a
software system operating in a given environment
• The lower the failure intensity of a software system, the
higher is its reliability

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What is the difference between two Definitions?

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Failures vs Faults
• Software Failure: an incorrect result with to the
specification or unexpected software behavior perceived by
users
• Software Fault: identified or hypothesized cause of the
software failure
• Failure – Effect vs Fault – Cause
• Defect: generic term referring to both failure and fault

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 Time Intervals

• Execution time • The CPU time that is actually

spent by the computer in
executing the software
• The time people normally
• Calendar time experience in terms of years,
months, weeks, days…
• The elapsed time from start
• Clock time to end of computer execution
in running the software
• What is the most relevant ?

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Questions to estimate the Software Reliability

• Questions about the Reliability in terms of time and failure:

• What is the time interval between two successive failures?
• How many failures have been observed within a certain time
interval, for example in the past one month or one year?
• What is the total number of failures observed so far?
• Answer these questions give an indication of the quality
level of a software

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Time Interval between Failures
• What does the small time interval between successive
failures tell?
• System is failing frequently and the reliability level is too low
• Reliability metrics
• Mean Time to Failure (MTTF)
• Mean Time to Repair (MTTR)
• Mean Time between Failures (MTBF)
• MTBF = MTTF + MTTR

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Relationship between MTTR, MTTF, MTBF

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8.2. Mathematical
Model of Reliability

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Mathematical Modelling of Software
Reliability
• Motivation
• Counting the number of failures observed so far and plotting the
data as a function of time to express the change in the reliability of
the system
• A rising graph of the cumulative number of failures shows that
there are more faults in the system
• The rate of rising of the graph is the rate at which failures are being
observed
• What is the meaning of small rate of rising of graph ?

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Mathematical Functions of Failures
• Cumulative failures are counted in periodic intervals
• Count cumulative failures every month
• Time: CPU time (τ) or calendar time (t)
• Cumulative failure function 𝜇 (τ)
• The total number of failures observed until execution time τ from the
beginning of the system execution
• Failure intensity function 𝜆 (τ)
• The number of failures observed per unit time after τ time units of
executing the system from the beginning
𝑑𝜇(𝜏) 𝜏
• 𝜆 𝜏 = 𝜇(𝜏) = ‫׬‬0 𝜆 𝑥 d𝑥
d𝜏

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8.3. Factors

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Factors influencing software reliability
• The software reliability depends on two categories of
information:
• The way users operate the system – also known as operational
profile
• The number of faults present in the software system
• Size and Complexity of code
• Characteristics of Development Process
• Education, Experience, and Training of Personnel
• Operational environment

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Applications of Software Reliability
• Comparison of Software Engineering Technologies
• What is the cost of adopting technology?
• How does the new technology affect the development schedule?
• What is the return from the new technology in terms of software
quality?
• Measuring the Progress of System Testing
• Percentage of test cases executed
• Percentage of successful execution of high-priority functional tests
• Controlling the System in Operation
• Better insight into Software Development Process

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8.4. Operational Profile

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Operational Profiles
• Operational profile or usage profile
• Describe how actual users operate a system
• Estimate the reliability of a system depends essentially on
how it will actually be used in the field
• Representation of Operational Profile
• Set of operations and its probability of occurrence
• Ex: 3 operations A, B, C with probability of occurrence: 50, 30 and 2%
• Operational profile: {(A, 0.5), (B, 0.3), (C, 0.02)}
• Two ways to represent:
• Tabular representation
• Graphical representation

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Tabular representation of Operational
Profile
• Tabular form with 3 columns
• Ex: Library Information System
• 1st column: names of operations
• 2nd column: the frequency of using the operation
• 3rd column: the probability of using the operation

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Example
484 CHAPTER 15 SOFTWARE RELIABILITY

TABLE15.1 Example of O perational Profi le of Library Information System

Operation Operations per Hour Probability

Book checked out 450 0.45

Book returned in time 324 0.324
Book renewed 81 0.081
Book returned late 36 0.036
Book reported lost 9 0.009
.. .. ..
. . .
Total 1000 1.0

Example of Operational Profile of Library Information System

Account
management = 0.4

2
Administration = 0.1
Reporting = 0.6
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Check out = 0.5
Graphical representation of Operational
Profile
• Tree structure consisting of nodes and branches
• Nodes represent attributes of operations
• Branches represent values of attributes with the associated
probability of occurrence
• Example: Library Information System

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 Book reported lost 9 0.009
.. .. ..
. . .
Total 1000 1.0
Example
Account
management = 0.4

2
Administration = 0.1
Reporting = 0.6

1 Check out = 0.5

3 Renewal = 0.09 .....

User service = 0.9
Loss = 0.01

Return = 0.4
Delayed = 0.1
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In time = 0.9

Figure 15.2 Graphical representation of operational profile of library information system.

Graphical Representation of Operational Profile of Library Information System
nodes, namely 1, 2, 3, and 4 are shown. Node 1 represents the scope attribute
of operations with two values, administration and user service. The scope of an
operation refers to whether an operation is for the administration of the infor-
mation system or for providing services to users. The probability of occurrence24
of the administration value of the scope attribute of an operation is 0.1, and the
Which form to choose?

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 Thank you
for your
attention!!!

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