Release Planning Analysis Through Testing Coverage and Fault Reduction Factor Based Models with Change Point Perspective

Abstract

This study delivers a valuable adjoin to the literature of software reliability growth model (SRGM) and associated software release time problem. In context of SRGM, this study examines the incorporation of testing coverage and Fault Reduction Factor (FRF) simultaneously. Since the fault detection process and coverage rate generally get influenced by several attributes including testing tactics, change in resources etc. therefore the principle of change point analysis was introduced to deal with such changes during the testing phase. Models proposed in the study are developed using Non Homogeneous Poisson Process that can be used to evaluate the reliability of software system quantitatively. We have also discussed goodness-of-fit of the proposed models by statistical estimation on two real life fault datasets. To investigate the optimal time to end the testing of the software, a release planning problem is discussed. The proposed release planning problem takes into consideration the minimization of the development cost subject to the reliability requirement constraint. The developed cost model is modeled with the help of some established cost items such as costs of removing faults in testing phase as well as in operational phase and fixed cost per unit time. The study finally takes into consideration sensitivity analysis in optimal release time problem taking into account the impact of variations in the cost parameters.