A finite failure software reliability model using extended log-logistic distribution

Abstract

Software reliability engineering has been developed to examine software systems over the years. Non-homogeneous Poisson process (NHPP) models are widely employed for analyzing software reliability data, as they have the ability to describe the expected number of failures over time using the mean value function. In addition, these models have an intensity function representing the failure rate over time. This article proposes a new non-homogeneous Poisson process model based on extended log-logistic (NHPP ELL) distribution with three parameters. The model properties were derived and represented graphically. Furthermore, the maximum likelihood estimation method was utilized to estimate the model parameters, which were computed numerically using the Newton–Raphson method. Three real software reliability datasets were utilized to evaluate the performance of the new NHPP ELL model based on three distinct criteria: the mean square error, the coefficient of determination (R2), the Theil statistic, the predictive-ratio risk, and the predictive power. Moreover, a comparative study was conducted between the proposed model and several well-known NHPP models regarding goodness-of-fit and predictive performance. All the evaluation measures indicate that the proposed model outperforms the other models across all the considered datasets. In addition, the graphical plots depicting the actual data and the prediction results for all the fitted models show that the proposed model performs well in all three considered software reliability datasets compared to other models.