Thermodynamic approach to modeling the software reliability growth process, taking into account the "secondary defects"

Abstract

In this paper, the process of software system correction intended to make the system more reliable is considered and this process modeling concept, which allows emergence of so-called secondary defects in course of said correction, is developed based on the thermodynamic approach. The absence of such defects is interpreted as the property of system maturity, which means that certain phase transition is finished. Detection of defects and emergence of new ones in the process of system correction can be simulated with the help of some generator. One can make conclusions about the accuracy of existing probabilistic reliability models from the estimates of the number of secondary errors on the basis of simulation process statistics similar to the statistics of real projects.