ABSTRACT
International electrotechnical commission 61508 makes the assumption that, whereas hardware failures can occur at random, software failures are all systematic, representing problems with the design, rather than problems with the implementation. With the possible exception of startups with no corporate history, all software companies have useful databases of their software history. Prediction models are based on historical data and are used before the project starts to predict numbers of failures, whereas estimation models are built as the project progresses and are based on data coming from the development and verification activities. The tuned parameters can then act as a starting point for the next project, thereby incorporating history into the software failure predictions as is described in anecdote 19 for hardware failures. Beta Component Incorporated was able to make use of a similar model during the preparation of its operating system for Alpha Device Corporation, but with several modifications.
