Technical Reports about software reliability and related topics
Arcadia Software Architecture Papers - Arcadia is a research project investigating tools and techniques to improve the software engineering process. The goal of the project is to support the creation of software engineering environments intended for the development, analysis, and maintenance of large, complex software systems, particularly those with high reliability requirements.
Embedded Software Maintenance - DACS Technical Report authored by Patricia Costa, Seija Koni-sirvio,
Mikael Lindvall, and Carolyn Seaman
Abstract:
The goal of this 2003 report is to describe the state-of-the-art of embedded software maintenance and provide a glimpse of state-of-the-practice embedded maintenance practices. Section 2 introduces the area of embedded software based on embedded systems, the implication of embedded software and some of its characteristics. Section 3 describes the more general area of software maintenance, different process models and characteristics. Section 4 analyzes embedded software maintenance and investigates how the characteristics of embedded systems affect software maintenance and then describes the typical problems and issues in maintenance. This section also links typical problems to the case studies that can be found in Appendix A. Section 5 discusses potential solutions. One solution, impact analysis, addresses problems that are identified in many case studies; we discuss impact analysis in Section 6. References are listed in Section 7. Appendix A contains details of the case studies. In Appendix B, we list some of the resources that are available for readers interested in further studies of embedded software maintenance.
Important Milestones in Software Reliability Modeling - A number of software reliability models have been proposed for assessing the reliability of a software system. In this paper, we discuss the time-domain and data-domain approaches to software reliability modeling, and classify the previously reported models into these two classes based on their underlying assumptions. The data-domain models are further classified into fault-seeding and input domain models, while the time-domain models are further classified into homogeneous Markov, non-homogeneous Markov and semi-Markov models. We present some representative models belonging to each of the classes, and then discuss the relative merits and limitations of the time and data-domain approaches.
Tactical Software Reliability Guidebook - Tactical Software Reliability (TSR) is a methodology that complements Software Process Improvement (SPI) and addresses tactical issues. It is designed to significantly improve a target software product within one year or less. The methodology is easily broadened to apply across product lines or product families. TSR has four core elements that align with the output phases of the software development life cycle: enabling methods; testing and verification; release and version control; and a closed-loop failure reporting, analysis, and corrective action system (FRACAS). This document describes how these core elements interrelate to improve software reliability. It provides detail on each task within these elements. Also, it targets key tasks to those who are most likely to perform them: the engineering managers; software engineers; software testers; software managers; software quality assurance engineers; and software configuration management engineers who develop, test, and control software.
DACS Gold Practice Initiative
