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Software Reliability

Software reliability is crucial for overall program quality and is defined as the probability of failure-free operation in a specified environment. It can be measured using metrics like meantime-between-failure (MTBF) and failures-in-time (FIT), while software safety focuses on identifying and mitigating potential hazards that could lead to system failures. Understanding the distinction between reliability and safety is essential, as reliability assesses the likelihood of failures, whereas safety evaluates the consequences of those failures in a broader context.

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Seetha Lakshmi
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10 views11 pages

Software Reliability

Software reliability is crucial for overall program quality and is defined as the probability of failure-free operation in a specified environment. It can be measured using metrics like meantime-between-failure (MTBF) and failures-in-time (FIT), while software safety focuses on identifying and mitigating potential hazards that could lead to system failures. Understanding the distinction between reliability and safety is essential, as reliability assesses the likelihood of failures, whereas safety evaluates the consequences of those failures in a broader context.

Uploaded by

Seetha Lakshmi
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SOFTWARE RELIABILITY

Present By:

Jayasri .A
Vaishnavi.
Balachandar
Felix Raj .A
Software Reliability

■ There is no doubt that the reliability of a computer program


is an important element of its overall quality. If a program
repeatedly and frequently fails to perform, it matters little
whether other software quality factors are acceptable.
■ Software reliability, unlike many other quality factors, can
be measured directly and estimated using historical and
developmental data. Software reliability is defined in
statistical terms as “the probability of failure-free operation
of a computer program in a specified environment for a
specified time
Software Reliability

■ To illustrate, program X is estimated to have a reliability of


0.999 over eight elapsed processing hours. In other words, if
program X were to be executed 1000 times and require a total
of eight hours of elapsed processing time (execution time), it
is likely to operate correctly (without failure) 999 times.
■ One failure can be corrected within seconds, while another
requires weeks or even months to correct. Complicating the
issue even further, the correction of one failure may in fact
result in the introduction of other errors that ultimately result
in other failures.
Measures of Reliability and
Availability
■ Early work in software reliability attempted to extrapolate the
mathematics of hardware reliability theory to the prediction of
software reliability. Most hardware-related reliability models are
predicated on failure due to wear rather than failure due to
design defects. In hardware, failures due to physical wear (e.g.,
the effects of temperature, corrosion, shock) are more likely than
a design-related failure. Unfortunately, the opposite is true for
software.
■ In fact, all software failures can be traced to design or
implementation problems; wear (see Chapter 1) does not enter
into the picture.
Measures of Reliability and
Availability
■ There has been an ongoing debate over the relationship
between key concepts in hardware reliability and their
applicability to software. Although an irrefutable link has yet to
be established, it is worthwhile to consider a few simple
concepts that apply to both system elements.
■ If we consider a computer-based system, a simple measure of
reliability is meantime-between-failure (MTBF):
■ MTBF MTTF MTTR
■ where the acronyms MTTF and MTTR are mean-time-to-failure
and mean-time-torepair, 2 respectively.
Measures of Reliability and
Availability
■ The MTBF of such obscure errors might be 30,000 or even
60,000 processor hours. Other defects, as yet
undiscovered, might have a failure rate of 4000 or 5000
hours. Even if every one of the first category of errors
(those with long MTBF) is removed, the impact on software
reliability is negligible.
■ However, MTBF can be problematic for two reasons:
 It projects a time span between failures, but does not
provide us with a projected failure rate.
 MTBF can be misinterpreted to mean average life
span even though this is not what it implies.
Measures of Reliability and
Availability
■ An alternative measure of reliability is failures-in-time (FIT)
—a statistical measure of how many failures a component
will have over one billion hours of operation. Therefore, 1
FIT is equivalent to one failure in every billion hours of
operation.
■ In addition to a reliability measure, you should also
develop a measure of availability. Software availability is
the probability that a program is operating according to
requirements at a given point in time and is defined as.
MTTF
Availability= MTTF+MTTR X 100%
Software Reliability

■ The MTBF reliability measure is equally sensitive to MTTF


and MTTR. The availability measure is somewhat more
sensitive to MTTR, an indirect measure of the maintainability
of software.
Software Safety:
■ Software safety is a software quality assurance activity that
focuses on the identification and assessment of potential
hazards that may affect software negatively and cause an
entire system to fail. If hazards can be identified early in the
software process, software design features can be specified
that will either eliminate or control potential hazards.
Software Safety

■ A modeling and analysis process is conducted as part of


software safety. Initially, hazards are identified and
categorized by criticality and risk.
■ some of the hazards associated with a computer-based
cruise control for an automobile might be:
 causes uncontrolled acceleration that cannot be
stopped.
 does not respond to depression of brake pedal (by
turning off).
 does not engage when switch is activated.
 slowly loses or gains speed. Once these system-level
hazards are identified, analysis techniques are used to
Software Safety

.
■ Although software reliability and software safety are
closely related to one another, it is important to
understand the subtle difference between them. Software
reliability uses statistical analysis to determine the
likelihood that a software failure will occur.
■ However, the occurrence of a failure does not necessarily
result in a hazard or mishap.
■ Software safety examines the ways in which failures
result in conditions that can lead to a mishap.
■ That is, failures are not considered in a vacuum, but are
evaluated in the context of an entire computer-based
system and its environment.
THANK YoU

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