NDLI: On the use of testability measures for dependability assessment

Content Provider	IEEE Xplore Digital Library
Author	Bertolino, A. Strigini, L.
Copyright Year	1976
Abstract	Program "testability" is informally, the probability that a program will fail under test if it contains at least one fault. When a dependability assessment has to be derived from the observation of a series of failure free test executions (a common need for software subject to "ultra high reliability" requirements), measures of testability can-in theory-be used to draw inferences on program correctness. We rigorously investigate the concept of testability and its use in dependability assessment, criticizing, and improving on, previously published results. We give a general descriptive model of program execution and testing, on which the different measures of interest can be defined. We propose a more precise definition of program testability than that given by other authors, and discuss how to increase testing effectiveness without impairing program reliability in operation. We then study the mathematics of using testability to estimate, from test results: the probability of program correctness and the probability of failures. To derive the probability of program correctness, we use a Bayesian inference procedure and argue that this is more useful than deriving a classical "confidence level". We also show that a high testability is not an unconditionally desirable property for a program. In particular, for programs complex enough that they are unlikely to be completely fault free, increasing testability may produce a program which will be less trustworthy, even after successful testing.
Sponsorship	IEEE Computer Society Technical Council on Software Engineering Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) IEEE Computer Society
Starting Page	97
Ending Page	108
Page Count	12
File Size	1626747
File Format	PDF
ISSN	00985589
Volume Number	22
Issue Number	2
Language	English
Publisher	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Publisher Date	1996-02-01
Publisher Place	U.S.A.
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Rights Holder	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subject Keyword	Software testing Computer bugs Software measurement Mathematics Bayesian methods Safety Lead
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Software

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1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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