Abstract
Behaviour models are the most commonly used input for predicting the reliability of a software system at the early design stage. A component behaviour model reveals the structure and behaviour of the component during the execution of system-level functionalities. There are various challenges related to component reliability prediction at the early design stage based on behaviour models. For example, most of the current reliability techniques do not provide fine-grained sequential behaviour models of individual components and fail to consider the loop entry and exit points in the reliability computation. Moreover, some of the current techniques do not tackle the problem of operational data unavailability and the lack of analysis results that can be valuable for software architects at the early design stage. This paper proposes a reliability prediction technique that, pragmatically, synthesizes system behaviour in the form of a state machine, given a set of scenarios and corresponding constraints as input. The state machine is utilized as a base for generating the component-relevant operational data. The state machine is also used as a source for identifying the nodes and edges of a component probabilistic dependency graph (CPDG). Based on the CPDG, a stack-based algorithm is used to compute the reliability. The proposed technique is evaluated by a comparison with existing techniques and the application of sensitivity analysis to a robotic wheelchair system as a case study. The results indicate that the proposed technique is more relevant at the early design stage compared to existing works, and can provide a more realistic and meaningful prediction.
Highlights
Observation of the trends in a range of fields indicates a variety of computer software applications
We argue that dealing with the important challenges in component reliability prediction at the early design stage stems from the precise derivation of an architectural model that is able to reveal the components’ structural and behavioural perspectives, tackle the unavailability of operational data and consider the loop entry and exit points of the behaviour models in the reliability computation
The applicability checking is directed to reveal whether the prediction of component reliability that is obtained based on the behaviour models synthesized from requirements specification is both possible and meaningful or not and to generalize the proposed technique
Summary
Observation of the trends in a range of fields indicates a variety of computer software applications. Software is increasingly used to support critical business applications and industrial processes. Most of these fields depend on software. Software Reliability Prediction for their basic functioning. Software failure can lead to critical events and fatal consequences in safety-critical applications as well as in business applications. In order to meet customer expectations and needs, the software must have high reliability. The increasing demands of software functionalities are leading to various issues including the scalability and degree of concurrency of the software system. Customer satisfaction is a serious challenge; software reliability engineering must live up to the needs of today’s complex software systems and their specific challenges [1]
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