Evaluating reliability of a software module using development life cycle

• US 9,146,792 B2
• Filed: 03/04/2013
• Issued: 09/29/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 12/05/2012
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Bird, John J., Ulmer, Terry R.
• Primary Examiner(s): Guyton, Philip
• Application Number:
  US13/784,341
• Publication Number:
  US 20140157063A1
• Time in Patent Office: 939 Days
• Field of Search: 714/47.3
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/008 Reliability or availability analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/0721 within a central processing unit [CPU]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/079 Root cause analysis, i.e. error or fault diagnosis in a hardware test environment G06F11/22; in a software test environment G06F11/36
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3495 for systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management

Abstract

Reliability of one or more software modules is projected according to a current state in a development life cycle of the software modules and any of various additional indicators. Preferably, a data processing support provider separate from the service-providing enterprise maintains historical field support data concerning significant field defect events with respect to various resources, and uses this data for projecting reliability of the resources. Preferably, software module reliability projections are used to support an analysis of risk of degradation of a service specified in a service requirements specification when provided by a configuration of data processing resources specified in a configuration specification.

Claims

1. A data processing system, comprising:

at least one processor;

a memory;

a software module reliability evaluator embodied as a plurality of instructions recordable in said memory and executable on said at least one processor, said software module reliability evaluator evaluating reliability of a designated software module corresponding to a designated state in a software module development life cycle of said designated software module,

wherein said software reliability evaluator correlates historical reliability data with multiple states in said software module development life cycle of said designated software module to evaluate reliability of said designated software module; and

wherein said software reliability evaluator outputs results of said evaluating reliability of said designated software module; and

a degradation of service risk evaluation function which uses said results of said evaluating reliability of said designated software module to evaluate degradation of service risk for a service provided by a set of data processing resources, said set of data processing resources containing said designated software module, and output results of evaluating degradation of service risk.

2. The data processing system of claim 1,

wherein said software reliability evaluator correlates said historical reliability data with multiple states in said software module development life cycle of said designated software module to evaluate reliability of said designated software module by using said historical reliability data to derive at least one coefficient of a mathematical model projecting software reliability as a function of time in a software module development life cycle, and evaluating reliability of said designated software module from said mathematical model and said designated state in a software module development life cycle of said designated software module.

3. The data processing system of claim 1,

wherein said historical reliability data comprises data concerning failure events occurring in production installations of at least one of:

(a) said designated software module, and (b) at least one previous version of said designated software module.

4. The data processing system of claim 3,

wherein said historical reliability data further comprises a respective cause for each of at least some of said plurality of failure events;

wherein said state in a software module development life cycle of said designated software module includes data concerning any fixes applied to said designated software module to correct at least one cause of failure; and

wherein said software reliability evaluator correlates said historical reliability data with multiple states in said software module development life cycle of said designated software module to evaluate reliability of said designated software module by filtering each failure event of said plurality of failure events for which a respective cause has been identified and has been corrected by said any fixes applied to said designated software module, and evaluating a reliability of said designated software module from the filtered results.

5. The data processing system of claim 1,

wherein said historical reliability data includes a plurality of event records, each record corresponding to a respective instance of software unavailability, and indicating a respective length of unavailability as a result of the corresponding event.

6. A data processing system, comprising:

at least one processor;

a memory;

a software module reliability evaluator embodied as a plurality of instructions recordable in said memory and executable on said at least one processor, said software module reliability evaluator evaluating reliability of a designated software module corresponding to a designated state in a software module development life cycle of said designated software module,

wherein said software reliability evaluator correlates historical reliability data with multiple states in said software module development life cycle of said designated software module to evaluate reliability of said designated software module,

wherein said software reliability evaluator outputs results of said evaluating reliability of said designated software module, and

wherein said historical reliability data comprises data concerning failure events occurring in production installations of at least one of;

(a) said designated software module, and (b) at least one previous version of said designated software module.

7. The data processing system of claim 6,

wherein said historical reliability data further comprises a respective cause for each of at least some of said plurality of failure events;

wherein said state in a software module development life cycle of said designated software module includes data concerning any fixes applied to said designated software module to correct at least one cause of failure; and

wherein said software reliability evaluator correlates said historical reliability data with multiple states in said software module development life cycle of said designated software module to evaluate reliability of said designated software module by filtering each failure event of said plurality of failure events for which a respective cause has been identified and has been corrected by said any fixes applied to said designated software module, and evaluating a reliability of said designated software module from the filtered results.

8. The data processing system of claim 6,

wherein said software reliability evaluator correlates said historical reliability data with multiple states in said software module development life cycle of said designated software module to evaluate reliability of said designated software module by using said historical reliability data to derive at least one coefficient of a mathematical model projecting software reliability as a function of time in a software module development life cycle, and evaluating reliability of said designated software module from said mathematical model and said designated state in a software module development life cycle of said designated software module.

9. A data processing system, comprising:

at least one processor;

a memory;

a software module reliability evaluator embodied as a plurality of instructions recordable in said memory and executable on said at least one processor, said software module reliability evaluator evaluating reliability of a designated software module corresponding to a designated state in a software module development life cycle of said designated software module,

wherein said software reliability evaluator correlates historical reliability data with multiple states in said software module development life cycle of said designated software module to evaluate reliability of said designated software module,

wherein said software reliability evaluator outputs results of said evaluating reliability of said designated software module, and

wherein said historical reliability data includes a plurality of event records, each record corresponding to a respective instance of software unavailability, and indicating a respective length of unavailability as a result of the corresponding event.

10. The data processing system of claim 9,

wherein said software reliability evaluator correlates said historical reliability data with multiple states in said software module development life cycle of said designated software module to evaluate reliability of said designated software module by using said historical reliability data to derive at least one coefficient of a mathematical model projecting software reliability as a function of time in a software module development life cycle, and evaluating reliability of said designated software module from said mathematical model and said designated state in a software module development life cycle of said designated software module.