Applying System Dynamics Approach for Optimizing Software Release Decisions

Abstract

Improving software quality is one of the most important purposes for software developers and engineers, and improving software stability is the best way to increase user satisfaction. However, faced with the pressure of the schedule of software release and the constraints of testing cost, software developers have to make appropriate trade-offs between the goals of software quality and testing cost. However, traditional studies based on software reliability growth models are complex and difficult to apply to complex software testing environments. Therefore, to avoid the difficulty of mathematical derivation and to make it easier to apply to complex software testing environments, a system dynamics approach is applied to develop a software reliability growth model. The purpose is to establish the causal loop model for adapting complex software testing situations. The effects of testing and debugging on software reliability growth are effectively prevented by defining a causal loop diagram and related rules to proceed with system simulations. In addition, we provide a practical application that allows decision-makers for software development to apply the research method to improve the planning of software testing projects.