Quantitative Measures for Software Independent Verification and Validation

ii Foreword The primary objective of this project is the formulation of software independent verification and validation (IV&V) methodologies that can be readily applied to future software development projects both for and within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Inherent in the methodologies is the precise specification of software measurement and data collection processes in the software development process so that more precise comparisons may be made in future software verification and validation activities. This objective will be achieved through the modification of existing reliability models to incorporate measures of dynamic program complexity. We now understand that reliability of a software system is directly determined by the execution environment of the software. Our goal is to build on the measurement methodologies established in the first phase of this project to improve the accuracy of software reliability assessment for the Space Shuttle primary avionics software system (PASS) and, ultimately, all software delivered to NASA. The technical manager of the project wishes to thank the following organizations and individuals for their technical contributions: