Reliability-oriented software engineering: design, testing and evaluation techniques

Software reliability engineering involves techniques for the design, testing and evaluation of software systems, focusing on reliability attributes. Design for reliability is achieved by fault-tolerance techniques that keep the system working in the presence of software faults. Testing for reliability is achieved by fault-removal techniques that detect and correct software faults before the system is deployed. Evaluation for reliability is achieved by fault-prediction techniques that model and measure the reliability of the system during its operation. This paper presents the best current practices in software reliability engineering for design, evaluation purposes. There are descriptions how fault-tolerant components are designed and applied to software systems, how software testing schemes are performed to show improvement of software reliability, and how reliability quantities are obtained for software systems. The tools associated with these techniques are also examined, and some application results are described