Reliability analysis for multi-release open-source software systems with change point and exponentiated Weibull fault reduction factor

Abstract

Evolutions in technology and rapid growth of open-source software (OSS) applications have made upgradation indispensable. To incorporate vagaries in users needs and environmental situations that affect the reliability growth of OSS, fault reduction factor (FRF) is one of the important factors to be considered during multi-release software development process. In this paper, a software reliability growth model (SRGM) has been proposed for successive releases to include some of the critical but realistic characteristics such as time variant FRF, effect of change point due to changing strategies and error generation during fault removal phenomena. For model validation, two popular open-source projects—Mozilla and Gnome—have been chosen for its multi-release real data sets. An optimal updation schedule problem is formulated, and a numerical illustration has been worked out. The goodness of fit of the proposed model is shown by comparing it with one of the well-known models reported in the literature.