Nonparametric dynamically weighted combination model to determine when to stop testing

Abstract

Software manufacturers need to minimize the number of their software failures in their production environments. So, software reliability becomes a critical factor for these manufacturers to focus on. Software Reliability Growth Models (SRGMs) are used as indicators of the number of failures that may be faced after the shipping of the software and thus are indicators of the readiness of the software for shipping. SRGMs to handle varying operational profiles have been proposed by researchers earlier. However, as it is difficult to predict the nature of the project in advance, the reliability engineer has to try out each model one at a time before zeroing in on the model to be used in the project. We have derived a combination model, called dynamically weighted infinite NHPP combination, using the existing models for determining the release time. The nonparametric dynamically weighted combination model that we propose was validated and was found to be effective.