Software Quality, Software Process, and Software Testing

Software testing should play a major role in the de nition and improvement of software development processes, because testing is the most precise, most easily measured and controlled part of the software lifecycle. However, unless testing goals are clearly related to true measurements of software quality, the testing may appear to improve, but the software will not. Much of current testing theory and practice is built on wishful thinking. In this paper, the state of the testing art, and the theory describing it, is critically examined. It is suggested that only a probabilistic theory, similar to reliability theory, but without its de ciencies, can describe the relationship between test measurements and product quality. The beginnings of a new theory of \dependability" are sketched.