Architecture-based approach to reliability assessment of software systems

With the growing emphasis on reuse, software development process moves toward component-based software design. As a result, there is a need for modeling approaches that are capable of considering the architecture of the software and estimating the reliability by taking into account the interactions between the components, the utilization of the components, and the reliabilities of the components and of their interfaces with other components. This paper details the state of the architecture-based approach to reliability assessment of component based software and describes how it can be used to examine software behavior right from the design stage to implementation and final deployment. First, the common requirements of the architecture-based models are identified and the classification is proposed. Then, the key models in each class are described in detail and the relation among them is discussed. A critical analysis of underlying assumptions, limitations and applicability of these models is provided which should be helpful in determining the directions for future research. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.