Computational algebra applications in reliability theory

Reliability analysts are typically forced to choose between using an 'algorithmic programming language' or a 'reliability package' for analyzing their models and lifetime data. This paper shows that computational languages can be used to bridge the gap to combine the flexibility of a programming language with the ease of use of a package. Computational languages facilitate the development of new statistical techniques and are excellent teaching tools. This paper considers three diverse reliability problems that are handled easily with a computational algebra language: system reliability bounds; lifetime data analysis; and model selection.