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Erschienen in: Empirical Software Engineering 5/2008

01.10.2008

Theory of relative defect proneness

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

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

Erschienen in: Empirical Software Engineering | Ausgabe 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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Fußnoten
1
Webcite link: http://​www.​webcitation.​org/​5RqqbCKKm (cached Sep. 14, 2007)
 
2
Webcite link: http://​www.​webcitation.​org/​5Rqr0BSz8 (cached Sep. 14, 2007)
 
3
CVS was the source code control system used by the KOffice developers. Webcite link: http://​www.​webcitation.​org/​5RrT2BaV1 (cached Sep. 14, 2007)
 
4
Perl is a stable, cross platform programming language. Webcite link: http://​www.​webcitation.​org/​5RrTDEdYV (cached Sep. 14, 2007)
 
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Metadaten
Titel
Theory of relative defect proneness
Replicated studies on the functional form of the size-defect relationship
verfasst von
A. Güneş Koru
Khaled El Emam
Dongsong Zhang
Hongfang Liu
Divya Mathew
Publikationsdatum
01.10.2008
Verlag
Springer US
Erschienen in
Empirical Software Engineering / Ausgabe 5/2008
Print ISSN: 1382-3256
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-7616
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-008-9080-x

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