The author's experience in reliability engineering is apparent and his expertise is infused in the text. This book illustrates the entire SRE process. It is an indispensable aid to systems engineers, systems architects, developers, and managers. The book shows how to develop and test software more efficiently. It makes you more competitive in a world of globalization and outsourcing. It furnishes everything you need to implement SRE in your organization, even showing you how to persuade people to adopt the practice. All material is presented in a casual, readable style, with math placed in separate background sections. What?s NEW to the second edition? ? Workshops templates to help you apply SRE to your project ? More than 700 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) ? Step by step process summary ? List of articles of SRE user experience ? Background sections ? Exercises ? Includes a simple, compact user manual for free CASRE software reliability estimation software, downloadable from the internet.

Table of Contents:
Contents Acknowledgments How to use this book Chapter 1 - Problem, Process, and Product 1.1 Core material 1.1.1 Problem and solution 1.1.1.1 What is the software practitioner?s biggest problem? 1.1.1.2 How does software reliability engineering approach it? 1.1.1.3 What?s been the experience with SRE? 1.1.2 The software reliability engineering process 1.1.3 Defining the product 1.2 Exercises 1.3 Workshop 1.3.1 General instructions for all workshops 1.3.2 Defining the product workshop 1.4 Special situations 1.4.1 Testing acquired software 1.5 Background 1.5.1 Learning reliability concepts 1.5.2 Software reliability and hardware reliability 1.6 Frequently asked questions 1.6.1 Problem and solution 1.6.1.1 What is the software practitioner?s biggest problem? 1.6.1.2 How does software reliability engineering approach it? 1.6.1.3 What?s been the experience with SRE? 1.6.2 The software reliability engineering process 1.6.3 Defining the product Chapter 2 - Implementing Operational Profiles 2.1 Core material 2.1.1 Developing operational profiles 2.1.1.1 Identifying the initiators of operations 2.1.1.2 Creating the operations list 2.1.1.3 Reviewing the operations list 2.1.1.4 Obtaining occurrence rates 2.1.1.5 Determining occurrence probabilities 2.1.2 Applying operational profiles 2.2 Exercises 2.3 Workshop 2.4 Special situations 2.4.1 Using the graphical representation of the operational profile 2.4.2 Handling the evolution of the definition of ?operation? 2.4.3 Applying the module usage table 2.5 Background 2.5.1 Learning operations and run concepts 2.6 Frequently asked questions 2.6.1 Developing operational profiles 2.6.1.1 Identifying the initiators of operations 2.6.1.2 Creating the operations list 2.6.1.3 Reviewing the operations list 2.6.1.4 Obtaining occurrence rates 2.6.1.5 Determining occurrence probabilities 2.6.2 Applying operational profiles Chapter 3 - Engineering ?Just Right? Reliability 3.1 Core material 3.1.1 Defining ?failure? for the product 3.1.2 Choosing a common measure for all associated systems 3.1.3 Setting system failure intensity objectives 3.1.3.1 Determining user needs for reliability and availability 3.1.3.2 Determining overall reliability and availability objectives 3.1.3.3 Finding the common failure intensity objective 3.1.4 Determining developed software failure intensity objectives 3.1.5 Engineering software reliability strategies 3.2 Exercises 3.3 Workshop 3.4 Special situations 3.4.1 Using failure severity classes 3.4.2 Using other failure groupings 3.4.3 Allocating the system failure intensity objective to components 3.4.4 Software safety, a subdiscipline of software reliability 3.4.5 Dealing with ultrareliable systems 3.5 Background 3.5.1 Failures, faults, and errors 3.5.1.1 Failures, the users? measure 3.5.1.2 Faults, the cause of failures 3.5.1.3 Errors, the cause of faults 3.5.2 Availability, a complement to reliability 3.5.3 System and component reliabilities and failure intensities 3.5.4 Predicting basic failure intensity 3.5.4.1 Inherent fault density 3.5.4.2 Fault exposure ratio 3.6 Frequently asked questions 3.6.1 Defining ?failure? for the product 3.6.2 Choosing a common measure for all associated systems 3.6.3 Setting system failure intensity objectives 3.6.3.1 Determining user needs for reliability and availability 3.6.3.2 Determining overall reliability and availability objectives 3.6.3.3 Finding the common failure intensity objective 3.6.4 Determining developed software failure intensity objectives 3.6.5 Engineering software reliability strategies Chapter 4 - Preparing for Test 4.1 Core material 4.1.1 Preparing test cases 4.1.1.1 Planning number of new test cases for current release 4.1.1.2 Allocating new test cases 4.1.1.3 Distributing new test cases among new operations 4.1.1.4 Detailing test cases 4.1.2 Preparing test procedures 4.2 Exercises 4.3 Workshop 4.4 Special situations 4.4.1 Using the graphical representation of the operational profile 4.5 Background 4.5.1 Testing efficiently 4.5.2 Increasing test efficiency by using equivalence classes 4.6 Frequently asked questions 4.6.1 Preparing test cases 4.6.1.1 Planning number of new test cases for current release 4.6.1.2 Allocating new test cases 4.6.1.3 Distributing new test cases among new operations 4.6.1.4 Detailing test cases 4.6.2 Preparing test procedures Chapter 5 - Executing Test 5.1 Core material 5.1.1 Planning and allocating test time for the current release 5.1.2 Invoking test 5.1.3 Identifying failures 5.1.3.1 Analyzing test output for deviations 5.1.3.2 Determining which deviations are failures 5.1.3.3 Establishing when failures occurred 5.2 Exercises 5.3 Workshop 5.4 Special situations 5.4.1 Testing multiple configurations 5.4.2 Handling uncertainties in establishing when failures occurred 5.4.3 Working with multiple releases in the field 5.5 Background 5.5.1 Invoking test 5.5.2 Counting failures 5.6 Frequently asked questions 5.6.1 Planning and allocating test time for the current release 5.6.2 Invoking test 5.6.3 Identifying failures 5.6.3.1 Analyzing test output for deviations 5.6.3.2 Determining which deviations are failures 5.6.3.3 Establishing when failures occurred Chapter 6 - Guiding Test 6.1 Core material 6.1.1 Tracking reliability growth 6.1.1.1 Estimating failure intensity 6.1.1.2 Using failure intensity patterns to guide test 6.1.2 Certifying reliability 6.2 Exercises 6.3 Workshop 6.4 Special situations 6.4.1 Estimating failure intensity for evolving programs 6.4.2 Handling unreported failures 6.4.3 Certifying with different risk levels and discrimination ratios 6.4.4 Operational profile variation 6.5 Background 6.5.1 Understanding software reliability growth models 6.5.1.1 Selecting models 6.5.1.2 Mathematics of selected models for practitioners 6.6 Frequently asked questions 6.6.1 Tracking reliability growth 6.6.1.1 Estimating failure intensity 6.6.1.2 Using failure intensity patterns to guide test 6.6.2 Certifying reliability Chapter 7 - Deploying SRE 7.1 Core material 7.1.1 Persuading your boss, your coworkers, and stakeholders 7.1.2 Executing the deployment 7.1.3 Using a consultant 7.1.3.1 Understanding the consultee?s viewpoint 7.1.3.2 Understanding the consultant?s viewpoint 7.2 Exercises 7.3 Workshop 7.4 Special situations - problems and how to handle them 7.5 Background - resources to help you 7.6 Frequently asked questions 7.6.1 Persuading your boss, your coworkers, and stakeholders 7.6.2 Executing the deployment Appendix A ? The SRE Process, Step by Step Appendix B - Glossary Appendix C - Summary of Useful Formulas Appendix D - Using CASRE Software D.1 Core material D.1.1 Creating the failure data file for CASRE D.1.2 Executing CASRE D.1.3 Executing CASRE with Excel to Obtain FI / FIO Plots D.1.4 Interpreting CASRE results D.2 Exercises D.3 Special situations - troubles D.4 Frequently asked questions Appendix E - Exercise Solutions Appendix F - User Experiences with SRE References Index About the Author