Limits to Evaluation of Software Dependability (1991)
| Venue: | in Software Reliability and Metrics (Proceedings of 7th Annual CSR Conference, Garmisch-Partenkirchen |
| Citations: | 15 - 3 self |
BibTeX
@INPROCEEDINGS{Littlewood91limitsto,
author = {Bev Littlewood},
title = {Limits to Evaluation of Software Dependability},
booktitle = {in Software Reliability and Metrics (Proceedings of 7th Annual CSR Conference, Garmisch-Partenkirchen},
year = {1991},
pages = {81--110},
publisher = {Elsevier}
}
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Abstract
inherent uncertainty It has been said that the term software engineering is an aspiration not a description. We would like to be able to claim that we engineer software, in the same sense that we engineer an aero-engine, but most of us would agree that this is not currently an accurate description of our activities. My suspicion is that it never will be. From the point of view of this essay- i.e. dependability evaluation- a major difference between software and other engineering artefacts is that the former is pure design. Its unreliability is always the result of design faults, which in turn arise as a result of human intellectual failures. The unreliability of hardware systems, on the other hand, has tended until recently to be dominated by random physical failures of components- the consequences of the ‘perversity of nature’. Reliability theories have been developed over the years which have successfully allowed systems to be built to high reliability requirements, and the final system reliability to be evaluated accurately. Even for pure hardware systems, without software, however, the very success of these theories has more recently highlighted the importance of design faults in determining
