Preliminary Validation of a Methodology for Assessing Software Quality

Abstract

This report summarizes the results of research conducted by the University of Maryland to validate a method for predicting software quality. The method is termed the Reliability Prediction System (RePS). The RePS methodology was initially presented in NUREG/GR-0019. The current effort is a preliminary validation of the RePS methodology with respect to its ability to predict software quality (measured in this report and in NUREG/GR-0019 in terms of software reliability) and, to a lesser extent, its usability when applied to relatively simple applications. It should be noted that the current validation effort is limited in scope to assess the efficacy of the RePS methodology for predicting software quality of the application under study for one phase of software development cycle. As such, the results indicate that additional effort on a 'full scope' software development project is warranted. The application under validation, Personnel entry/exit ACcess System (PACS), is a simplified version of an automated personnel entry access system through a gate to provide privileged physical access to rooms/buildings, etc. This system shares some attributes of a reactor protection system, such as functioning in real-time to produce a binary output based upon inputs from a relatively simple human-machine interface with and end user/operator.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 01, 2004
Accession Number
ADA530098

Entities

People

  • C. S. Smidts
  • Min Li

Organizations

  • University of Maryland

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Engineered Resilient Systems
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Application Software
  • Business Administration
  • Computer Programming
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Engineering
  • Engineers
  • Failure Mode And Effect Analysis
  • Graphical User Interface
  • Human-Machine Interfaces
  • Management Personnel
  • Operating Systems
  • Reliability
  • Software Development
  • Software Development Tools
  • Software Metrics
  • System Software

Fields of Study

  • Computer science
  • Engineering

Readers

  • Nuclear and Radiation Engineering.
  • Software Engineering.
  • Systems Analysis and Design