A Software Reliability Modeling Method Based on Gene Expression Programming

In this paper, an improved GEP(Gene Expression Programming based on Block Strategy, BS-GEP) is proposed in consideration of the characteristics of software reliability growth models, on which a new software reliability modeling method is formed. Block strategy is the key point of BS-GEP, in which the population is divided into several blocks according to the individual fitness of each generation and the genetic operators are reset differently in each block to guarantee the genetic diversity. The new reliability model is constructed on software failure time series using BS-GEP algorithm, and compared with the traditional models. The simulation results show that the new model has excellent goodness of fit, and its predictive ability in the short term is superior to the traditional models and classical GEP model. The new method is proved widely used for many other time sequences and has a wider versatility.