The exponentiated Weibull software reliability growth model with various testing‐efforts and optimal release policy

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to incorporate the exponentiated Weibull testing‐effort functions into software reliability modeling and to estimate the optimal software release time.Design/methodology/approachThis paper suggests a software reliability growth model based on the non‐homogeneous Poisson process (NHPP) which incorporates the exponentiated Weibull (EW) testing‐efforts.FindingsExperimental results on actual data from three software projects are compared with other existing models which reveal that the proposed software reliability growth model with EW testing‐effort is wider and effective SRGM.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper presents a SRGM using a constant error detection rate per unit testing‐effort.Practical implicationsSoftware reliability growth model is one of the fundamental techniques to assess software reliability quantitatively. The results obtained in this paper will be useful during the software testing process.Originality/valueThe present scheme has a flexible structure and may cover many of the earlier results on software reliability growth modeling. In general, this paper also provides a framework in which many software reliability growth models can be described.