NDLI: Toward a quantifiable definition of software faults

Content Provider	IEEE Xplore Digital Library
Author	Munson, J.C. Nikora, A.P.
Copyright Year	2002
Description	Author affiliation: Dept. of Comput. Sci., Idaho Univ., Moscow, ID, USA (Munson, J.C.)
Abstract	An important aspect of developing models relating the number and type of faults in a software system to a set of structural measurement is defining what constitutes a fault. By definition, a fault is a structural imperfection in a software system that may lead to the system's eventually failing. A measurable and precise definition of what faults are makes it possible to accurately identify and count them, which in turn allows the formulation of models relating fault counts and types to other measurable attributes of a software system. Unfortunately, the most widely-used definitions are not measurable; there is no guarantee that two different individuals looking at the same set of failure reports and the same set of fault definitions will count the same number of underlying faults. The incomplete and ambiguous nature of current fault definitions adds a noise component to the inputs used in modeling fault content. If this noise component is sufficiently large, any attempt to develop a fault model will produce invalid results. As part of our on-going work in modeling software faults, we have developed a method of unambiguously identifying and counting faults. Specifically, we base our recognition and enumeration of software faults on the grammar of the language of the software system. By tokenizing the differences between a version of the system exhibiting a particular failure behavior, and the version in which changes were made to eliminate that behavior, we are able to unambiguously count the number of faults associated with that failure. With modern configuration management tools, the identification and counting of software faults can be automated.
Sponsorship	IEEE Comput. Soc. Tech. Committee on Software Eng. IEEE Reliabiltiy Soc. IBM Microsoft Res. Cigital
Starting Page	388
Ending Page	395
File Size	265804
Page Count	8
File Format	PDF
ISBN	0769517633
ISSN	10719458
DOI	10.1109/ISSRE.2002.1173299
Language	English
Publisher	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Publisher Date	2002-11-12
Publisher Place	USA
Access Restriction	Subscribed
Rights Holder	Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
Subject Keyword	Computer science Propulsion Laboratories Space technology Identity management systems
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
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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