Generalized software release and testing stop time policy

Abstract

Purpose Almost everything around us is the output of software-driven machines or working with software. Software firms are working hard to meet the user’s requirements. But developing a fault-free software is not possible. Also due to market competition, firms do not want to delay their software release. But early release software comes with the problem of user reporting more failures during operations due to more number of faults lying in it. To overcome the above situation, software firms these days are releasing software with an adequate amount of testing instead of delaying the release to develop reliable software and releasing software patches post release to make the software more reliable. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach The authors have developed a generalized framework by assuming that testing continues beyond software release to determine the time to release and stop testing of software. As the testing team is always not skilled, hence, the rate of detection correction of faults during testing may change over time. Also, they may commit an error during software development, hence increasing the number of faults. Therefore, the authors have to consider these two factors as well in our proposed model. Further, the authors have done sensitivity analysis based on the cost-modeling parameters to check and analyze their impact on the software testing and release policy. Findings From the proposed model, the authors found that it is better to release early and continue testing in the post-release phase. By using this model, firms can get the benefits of early release, and at the same time, users get the benefit of post-release software reliability assurance. Originality/value The authors are proposing a generalized model for software scheduling.

Change‐points‐based software scheduling

“…Considering this trade‐off of reliability and release time, academicians and researchers also worked on developing software cost models using SRGM to obtain the optimal release time by minimizing the total expected cost. Several authors worked upon the formulation of these release time problems considering different aspects of software reliability like imperfect debugging, testing effort, testing efficiency, change‐point, reliability constraint, budgetary constraints, etc 21,24,31,33,35–39 . Okumoto and Goel 31 did the pioneering work in software release time determination by formulating software cost model using exponential NHPP‐based SRGM.…”

“…Later Jiang et al 16 proposed a quantitative model and claimed that it is better release the software early to get the opportunity to acquire higher market potential and continue to test the software in the operational phase to remove the maximum number of faults before terminating the testing of the software. This phenomenon attracted various other researchers to develop more literature in this direction 1,18,26,32–34,36,40 . Kapur and Shrivastava 20 extended the Jiang et al 16 model by considering the cost of fault detection by testing team during post release testing phase.…”

“…Kapur et al 17 proposed a mathematical framework to jointly determine the software release and testing termination time by using multi attribute utility theory using cost and reliability as two attributes. Shrivastava and Sachdeva 33 developed a generalized software cost model using SRGM under imperfect debugging and change‐point to determine software release and testing stop time under reliability and budgetary constraint.…”

“…Several authors worked upon the formulation of these release time problems considering different aspects of software reliability like imperfect debugging, testing effort, testing efficiency, change-point, reliability constraint, budgetary constraints, etc. 21,24,31,33,[35][36][37][38][39] Okumoto and Goel 31 did the pioneering work in software release time determination by formulating software cost model using exponential NHPPbased SRGM. Their cost model was unconstrained.…”

“…This phenomenon attracted various other researchers to develop more literature in this direction. 1,18,26,[32][33][34]36,40 Kapur and Shrivastava 20 extended the Jiang et al 16 model by considering the cost of fault detection by testing team during post release testing phase. Kapur et al 17 proposed a mathematical framework to jointly determine the software release and testing termination time by using multi attribute utility theory using cost and reliability as two attributes.…”