Software Reliability

Software Reliability means Operational reliability. It is described as the ability of a system or component to perform its required functions under static conditions for a specific period.

Software reliability is also defined as the probability that a software system fulfills its assigned task in a given environment for a predefined number of input cases, assuming that the hardware and the input are free of error.

Software Reliability is an essential connect of software quality, composed with functionality, usability, performance, serviceability, capability, installability, maintainability, and documentation. Software Reliability is hard to achieve because the complexity of software turn to be high. While any system with a high degree of complexity, containing software, will be hard to reach a certain level of reliability, system developers tend to push complexity into the software layer, with the speedy growth of system size and ease of doing so by upgrading the software.

For example, large next-generation aircraft will have over 1 million source lines of software on-board; next-generation air traffic control systems will contain between one and two million lines; the upcoming International Space Station will have over two million lines on-board and over 10 million lines of ground support software; several significant life-critical defense systems will have over 5 million source lines of software. While the complexity of software is inversely associated with software reliability, it is directly related to other vital factors in software quality, especially functionality, capability, etc.