[SystemSafety] Software reliability (or whatever you would prefer to call it)

[Martyn Thomas]

Nick

You will recall that I started the thread with the title above by asking
a question. To paraphrase: if some software is operating in a given
operational environment, and fails repeatedly, and the causes of the
failure are corrected by error corrections to the software, and the
process continues for a significant time during which the number of
failures per hour are observed to have reduced, what property of the
software has improved? Specifically, why would it be wrong to call this
property "reliability"?

Is it meaningless to say that one release of a software system is "more
reliable" than an earlier release? If you believe it is meaningless to
talk of software reliability in these contexts, please explain what
phrase you would prefer to use, and why.

Martyn

 

On 09/03/2015 10:14, Nick Tudor wrote:
> ...
>
> In my view, the reason so many have commented on the list is that the
> kind of thinking espoused regarding so called "software reliability"
> costs industry and tax payers money and it is frustrating to have such
> written in standards which ill-informed users, such as those in
> government, take as read.