Fuzzy based ranking of software reliability measures

Abstract

This research paper summarizes the results of an implementation of fuzzy multilevel methodology to rank software reliability measures. Of late, computer based systems are used largely for monitoring, protecting and to control safety critical systems like nuclear power plants, Aircraft etc. Reliability is an important factor for assessing the performance of such safety critical digital systems. The characteristics of such digital safety critical systems are explicitly or implicitly reflected by software engineering measures. Therefore, with the help of such measures, models can be built to predict the reliability of software applications that run on safety critical systems. It is not necessary that every software engineering measures contribute to predict the reliability, hence they need to be ranked based on their influence on reliability. Since sufficient practical data is not available in literature, expert opinion on the selected software engineering measures contributing to reliability based on criterion has been sought. These expert ratings are aggregated and ranked using Chen's fuzzy logic based ranking method. As the data involved with this kind of problems are inherently imprecise and inexact, application of fuzzy set theory is very suitable for such situations. The top-ranked software engineering measures can be later used to develop a model to predict reliability of safety critical digital systems.