Software Reliability Control using Statistical Usage Testing

Software reliability is a frequently used term, but very seldom the reliability is under control, at least not in quantitative terms, during a software development project. This paper outlines a method, Statistical Usage Testing (SUT), which provides the opportunity to estimate and predict, and hence control software reliability. SUT is the reliability certification method described as a part of Cleanroom software engineering. The main objective of SUT is to certify the software reliability and to find the faults with high influence on reliability. SUT provides statistically based stopping rules during test as well as an effective use of test resources, which is shown by practical application of this and similar methods. This paper presents the basic ideas behind SUT and some of the current research being conducted in this area at the department of Communication Systems