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Empirical Software Engineering

Published in:

01-10-2008

Theory of relative defect proneness

Replicated studies on the functional form of the size-defect relationship

Authors: A. Güneş Koru, Khaled El Emam, Dongsong Zhang, Hongfang Liu, Divya Mathew

Published in: Empirical Software Engineering | Issue 5/2008

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Abstract

In this study, we investigated the functional form of the size-defect relationship for software modules through replicated studies conducted on ten open-source products. We consistently observed a power-law relationship where defect proneness increases at a slower rate compared to size. Therefore, smaller modules are proportionally more defect prone. We externally validated the application of our results for two commercial systems. Given limited and fixed resources for code inspections, there would be an impressive improvement in the cost-effectiveness, as much as 341% in one of the systems, if a smallest-first strategy were preferred over a largest-first one. The consistent results obtained in this study led us to state a theory of relative defect proneness (RDP): In large-scale software systems, smaller modules will be proportionally more defect-prone compared to larger ones. We suggest that practitioners consider our results and give higher priority to smaller modules in their focused quality assurance efforts.

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Title: Theory of relative defect proneness
Replicated studies on the functional form of the size-defect relationship
Authors: A. Güneş Koru
Khaled El Emam
Dongsong Zhang
Hongfang Liu
Divya Mathew
Publication date: 01-10-2008
Publisher: Springer US
Published in: Empirical Software Engineering / Issue 5/2008
Print ISSN: 1382-3256
Electronic ISSN: 1573-7616
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-008-9080-x

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