Fault Analysis in OSS Based on Program Slicing Metrics

In this paper, we investigate the barcode OSS using two of Weiser's original slice-based metrics (tightness and overlap) as a basis, complemented with fault data extracted from multiple versions of the same system. We compared the values of the metrics in functions with at least one reported fault with fault-free modules to determine a) whether significant differences in the two metrics would be observed and b) whether those metrics might allow prediction of faulty functions. Results revealed some interesting traits of the tightness metric and, in particular, how low values of that metric seemed to indicate fault-prone functions. A significant difference was found between the tightness metric values for faulty functions when compared to fault-free functions suggesting that tightness is the `better' of the two metrics in this sense. The overlap metric seemed less sensitive to differences between the two types of function.