Reliability Metrics

Reliability metrics are used to quantitatively expressed the reliability of the software product. The option of which metric is to be used depends upon the type of system to which it applies & the requirements of the application domain.

Some reliability metrics which can be used to quantify the reliability of the software product are as follows:

1. Mean Time to Failure (MTTF)

MTTF is described as the time interval between the two successive failures. An MTTF of 200 mean that one failure can be expected each 200-time units. The time units are entirely dependent on the system & it can even be stated in the number of transactions. MTTF is consistent for systems with large transactions.

For example, It is suitable for computer-aided design systems where a designer will work on a design for several hours as well as for Word-processor systems.

To measure MTTF, we can evidence the failure data for n failures. Let the failures appear at the time instants t₁,t₂.....t_n.

MTTF can be calculated as

2. Mean Time to Repair (MTTR)

Once failure occurs, some-time is required to fix the error. MTTR measures the average time it takes to track the errors causing the failure and to fix them.

3. Mean Time Between Failure (MTBR)

We can merge MTTF & MTTR metrics to get the MTBF metric.

                  MTBF = MTTF + MTTR

Thus, an MTBF of 300 denoted that once the failure appears, the next failure is expected to appear only after 300 hours. In this method, the time measurements are real-time & not the execution time as in MTTF.

4. Rate of occurrence of failure (ROCOF)

It is the number of failures appearing in a unit time interval. The number of unexpected events over a specific time of operation. ROCOF is the frequency of occurrence with which unexpected role is likely to appear. A ROCOF of 0.02 mean that two failures are likely to occur in each 100 operational time unit steps. It is also called the failure intensity metric.

5. Probability of Failure on Demand (POFOD)

POFOD is described as the probability that the system will fail when a service is requested. It is the number of system deficiency given several systems inputs.

POFOD is the possibility that the system will fail when a service request is made.

A POFOD of 0.1 means that one out of ten service requests may fail.POFOD is an essential measure for safety-critical systems. POFOD is relevant for protection systems where services are demanded occasionally.

6. Availability (AVAIL)

Availability is the probability that the system is applicable for use at a given time. It takes into account the repair time & the restart time for the system. An availability of 0.995 means that in every 1000 time units, the system is feasible to be available for 995 of these. The percentage of time that a system is applicable for use, taking into account planned and unplanned downtime. If a system is down an average of four hours out of 100 hours of operation, its AVAIL is 96%.

Software Metrics for Reliability

The Metrics are used to improve the reliability of the system by identifying the areas of requirements.

Different Types of Software Metrics are:-

Requirements Reliability Metrics

Requirements denote what features the software must include. It specifies the functionality that must be contained in the software. The requirements must be written such that is no misconception between the developer & the client. The requirements must include valid structure to avoid the loss of valuable data.

The requirements should be thorough and in a detailed manner so that it is simple for the design stage. The requirements should not include inadequate data. Requirement Reliability metrics calculates the above-said quality factors of the required document.

Design and Code Reliability Metrics

The quality methods that exists in design and coding plan are complexity, size, and modularity. Complex modules are tough to understand & there is a high probability of occurring bugs. The reliability will reduce if modules have a combination of high complexity and large size or high complexity and small size. These metrics are also available to object-oriented code, but in this, additional metrics are required to evaluate the quality.

Testing Reliability Metrics

These metrics use two methods to calculate reliability.

First, it provides that the system is equipped with the tasks that are specified in the requirements. Because of this, the bugs due to the lack of functionality reduces.

The second method is calculating the code, finding the bugs & fixing them. To ensure that the system includes the functionality specified, test plans are written that include multiple test cases. Each test method is based on one system state and tests some tasks that are based on an associated set of requirements. The goals of an effective verification program is to ensure that each elements is tested, the implication being that if the system passes the test, the requirement?s functionality is contained in the delivered system.