Open Source Software Reliability Model with the Decreasing Trend of Fault Detection Rate

Abstract

Abstract Software reliability assessment methods have been changed from closed to open source software (OSS). Although numerous new approaches for improving OSS reliability are formulated, they are not used in practice due to their inaccuracy. A new proposed model considering the decreasing trend of fault detection rate is developed in this study to effectively improve OSS reliability. We analyse the changes of the instantaneous fault detection rate over time by using real-world software fault count data from two actual OSS projects, namely, Apache and GNOME, to validate the proposed model performance. Results show that the proposed model with the decreasing trend of fault detection rate has better fitting and predictive performance than the traditional closed source software and other OSS reliability models. The proposed model for OSS can further accurately fit and predict the failure process and thus can assist in improving the quality of OSS systems in real-world OSS projects.