On the use of testability measures for dependability assessmentBy Lorenzo Strigini and Antonia Bertolino; IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, Vol. 22, No. 2, February 1996 ABSTRACT We first give a general descriptive model of program execution and testing, on which the different measures of interest can be defined. We propose a more precise definition of program testability than that given by other authors, and discuss how to increase testing effectiveness without impairing program reliability in operation. We then study the mathematics of using testability to estimate, from test results: i) the probability of program correctness and ii) the probability of failures. To derive the probability of program correctness, we use a Bayesian inference procedure and argue that this is more useful than deriving a classical "confidence level". We also show that a high testability is not an unconditionally desirable property for a program. In particular, for programs complex enough that they are unlikely to be completely fault-free, increasing testability may produce a program which will be less trustworthy, even after successful testing. The full text of this paper is available in .pdf and .ps format. |
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