A Dynamic Failure Model for Predicting the Impact that a Program Location has on the Program

This paper presents a dynamic technique for predicting the e ect that a location" of a program will have on the program's computational behavior. The technique is based on the three necessary and su cient conditions for software failure to occur: 1 a fault must be executed, 2 the fault must adversely a ect the data state, and 3 the adverse e ect in a data state must a ect program output. In order to predict the e ect that a location of a program will have on the program's computational behavior, the following characteristics of each program location are estimated: 1 the probability that a location of the program is executed, 2 the probability that a location of the program noticeably a ects the program state created by the location, and 3 the probability that the data states created by a location a ect the program's output. With estimates of these characteristics for each location in a program, we can predict those locations where a fault can more easil...

• Type: Conference
• Year: 1991
• Where: ESEC
• Authors: Jeffrey M. Voas
• Keywords: Data States, Ect Program Output, ESEC 1991, Program's Computational Behavior, Software Engineering