Analysis of Module-Based Software Reliability Growth Model Incorporating Imperfect Debugging and Fault Reduction Factor

This investigation deals with the module-based software reliability growth model that incorporates both imperfect debugging and fault reduction factor. The increasing number of faults may decrease the efficiency of testing and give a poor result in the form of fault reduction factor during the software testing. In order to prevent the possible faults, software developer must verify the software for all possible faults in the testing period. To characterize the environmental factors during the testing process, we consider a fault reduction factor into imperfect debugging environment. In the present study, we assume that the complex software system is divided into a module-based software system wherein each module consists of different types of faults and having different failure rates and characteristics. For each module, three-stage processes (observation, isolation, and removal process) are considered. The main objective of our investigation is to minimize the expected maintenance cost of the software subject to reliability constraints. The analytical expressions for various performance indices for the reliability assessment of the software are derived. Numerical results are facilitated for the validity of the analytical results and examining the effects of system descriptors on reliability indices.