Incorporating Code Coverage in the Reliability Estimation for Fault-Tolerant Software

We present a technique that uses coverage measures in reliability estimation for fault tolerant programs, particularly N-version software. This technique exploits both coverage and time measures collected during testing phases for the individual program versions and the N-version software system for reliability prediction. The application of this technique on the single-version software was presented in our previous research. In this paper we extend this technique and apply it on the N-version programs. The results obtained from the experiment conducted on an industrial project demonstrate that our technique significantly reduces the hazard of reliability overestimation for both single-version and multi-version fault tolerant software systems.