Software Reliability and Testing

Rating:
Summary: Gold mine of SQA and reliability ideas and techniques
Review: This book is a collection of 14 essays on software quality and testing that has been compiled and edited by Dr. Hoang Pham. The material is more suited for academic, R&D and advanced software quality assurance professionals, and is highly technical in nature. Dr. Pham is one of the top names in software reliability and quality. His credentials as author, contributor or editor of over 50 articles and 18 books, and his forward-thinking research ensures that the essays in this book represents solid material. Although this compilation of essays was published in 1995 they are still applicable and are an excellent source of material for researchers and advanced practitioners.

The essays are divided among two main topics: (1) software reliability and (2) theoretical testing and assurance techniques.

Essay titles that focus on reliability are: Realistic Assumptions for Software Reliability Models, Predicting Software Development Errors Using Software Complexity Metrics, The Infeasibility of Quantifying the Reliability of Life-Critical Real-Time Software, Reliability Analysis of Large Software Systems: Defect Data Modeling, A Micro Software Reliability Model for Prediction and Test Apportionment, and Optimization Models for Selection of Programs Considering Cost & Reliability.

The essays that focus on testing and assurance techniques are: Software Reliability Measurement in Imperfect Debugging Environment and its Application, Are We Testing for True Reliability?, Safety Arguments, Software and System Reliability, Application of Software Reliability Modeling to Product Quality and Test Process, Some New Models of Software Testing with Performance Comparisons, Software Fault Content and Reliability Estimations for Telecommunication Systems, Adapting, Correcting, and Perfecting Software Estimates: A Maintenance Metaphor, and Enhanced Availability of Transaction Oriented Systems using Failure Tests.

Each essay is an in-depth monograph on its topic. The essays that I personally thought were highlights of this book were Predicting Software Development Errors Using Software Complexity Metrics, Adapting, Correcting, and Perfecting Software Estimates: A Maintenance Metaphor, and Enhanced Availability of Transaction Oriented Systems using Failure Tests. From each of these I learned some interesting techniques that were directly applicable to applications and service delivery from QA and support points of view that could be incorporated into real-life processes.

Do not let the age of this book deter you - it's as applicable to reliability and quality challenges we face in 2001 as it was when written in 1995. If you are among the target audience I cited above this will prove to be a valuable resource, and a gold mine of advanced ideas on reliability and quality.

Rating:
Summary: Gold mine of SQA and reliability ideas and techniques
Review: This book is a collection of 14 essays on software quality and testing that has been compiled and edited by Dr. Hoang Pham. The material is more suited for academic, R&D and advanced software quality assurance professionals, and is highly technical in nature. Dr. Pham is one of the top names in software reliability and quality. His credentials as author, contributor or editor of over 50 articles and 18 books, and his forward-thinking research ensures that the essays in this book represents solid material. Although this compilation of essays was published in 1995 they are still applicable and are an excellent source of material for researchers and advanced practitioners.

The essays are divided among two main topics: (1) software reliability and (2) theoretical testing and assurance techniques.

Essay titles that focus on reliability are: Realistic Assumptions for Software Reliability Models, Predicting Software Development Errors Using Software Complexity Metrics, The Infeasibility of Quantifying the Reliability of Life-Critical Real-Time Software, Reliability Analysis of Large Software Systems: Defect Data Modeling, A Micro Software Reliability Model for Prediction and Test Apportionment, and Optimization Models for Selection of Programs Considering Cost & Reliability.

The essays that focus on testing and assurance techniques are: Software Reliability Measurement in Imperfect Debugging Environment and its Application, Are We Testing for True Reliability?, Safety Arguments, Software and System Reliability, Application of Software Reliability Modeling to Product Quality and Test Process, Some New Models of Software Testing with Performance Comparisons, Software Fault Content and Reliability Estimations for Telecommunication Systems, Adapting, Correcting, and Perfecting Software Estimates: A Maintenance Metaphor, and Enhanced Availability of Transaction Oriented Systems using Failure Tests.

Each essay is an in-depth monograph on its topic. The essays that I personally thought were highlights of this book were Predicting Software Development Errors Using Software Complexity Metrics, Adapting, Correcting, and Perfecting Software Estimates: A Maintenance Metaphor, and Enhanced Availability of Transaction Oriented Systems using Failure Tests. From each of these I learned some interesting techniques that were directly applicable to applications and service delivery from QA and support points of view that could be incorporated into real-life processes.

Do not let the age of this book deter you - it's as applicable to reliability and quality challenges we face in 2001 as it was when written in 1995. If you are among the target audience I cited above this will prove to be a valuable resource, and a gold mine of advanced ideas on reliability and quality.