CSE 8317 (Spring, 2003)

Important SRE/SSE Papers not Included in Our Course Notes

Here is a list of some important papers in the area of software reliability engineering (SRE) and software safety engineering (SSE). The contents of these papers roughly correspond to the topics that we will be covering in our CSE 8317 class (in addition to the papers in our course notes), so they can be used as additional reading material or possibly as a substitute for one of your textbooks. Notice that these are not a very good textbook substitute, without much of a connection or transition among different papers. However, you can save some money by paying more in your searching/reading effort.

SRE Papers

  1. References #24 (survey), 38 (OP), 39 (applications and recent development), and 49 (data treatment) listed at the end of the Tian-AIC Paper "Reliability measurement...." included in our course notes.
  2. References #2, 4, 9, 17 (all about data treatment) listed at the end of the Tian-2002 Paper "Better reliability ...." included in our course notes.
  3. M.-H. Chen, M. R. Lyu and W. E. Wong, Effect of Code Coverage on Software Reliability Measurement, IEEE Trans. on Reliability, 50(2):165-170, June, 2001.
  4. M. R. Lyu, S. Rangarajan, and A. P. A. van Moorsel, Optimal Allocation of Test Resources for Software Reliability Growth Modeling in Software Development, IEEE Trans. on Reliability, 51(2):183-192, June, 2002.

SRE => SSE (and Testing) Papers

  1. R. W. Butler and G. B. Finelli, The Infeasibility of Quantifying the Reliability of Life-Critical Real-Time Software, IEEE Trans. on Software Engineering, 19(1):3-12, Jan, 1993.
  2. B. Littlewood and D. Wright, Some Conservative Stopping Rules for the Operational Testing of Safety-Critical Software, IEEE Trans. on Software Engineering, 23(11):673-683, Nov, 1997.
  3. S. King, J. Hammond, R. Chapman and A. Pryor, "Is Proof More Cost-Effective Than Testing", IEEE Trans. on Software Engineering, 26(8):675-686, Aug., 2000.
  4. J. M. Voas and L. Kassab", Using Assertions to Make Untestable Software More Testable, Software Quality Professional, 1(4):31-40, Sep, 1999.

SSE Papers

  1. N. E. Fenton and M. Neil, "A Strategy for Improving Safety Related Software Engineering Standards". IEEE Trans. on Software Engineering, 24(11):1002-1013, Nov., 1998.
  2. S. Gerhart, D. Craigen and T. Ralston. Experience with formal methods in critical systems. IEEE Software, 11(1):20--28, Jan. 1994.
  3. S. Gerhart, D. Craigen and T. Ralston. Regulatory case studies. IEEE Software, 11(1):30--39, Jan. 1994.
  4. J. Knight and B. Littlewood. Critical task of writing dependable software. IEEE Software, 11(1):16--20, Jan. 1994.
  5. N. G. Leveson. Software safety in embedded computer systems. Communications of the ACM, 36(2):34--46, Feb. 1991.
  6. N. G. Leveson. High-pressure steam engines and computer software. IEEE Computer, pages 65--73, Oct. 1994.
  7. N. G. Leveson and C. Turner. An investigation of the Therac-25 accidents. IEEE Computer, pages 19--41, July 1993.
  8. D. L. Parnas, A. J. Schouwen, and S. P. Kwan. Evaluation of safety-critical software. Communications of the ACM, 33(6):636--648, June 1990.
Notice that the papers #2-#4 above are all from the same issue: IEEE Software, 11(1), Jan. 1994. The next three are by Leveson, the author of our textbook, with #5 a particularly good survey paper on SSE.

Recent Surveys in a Book

Anthony Finkelstein, editor, "The Future of Software Engineering", ACM Press, 2000.
Survey papers relevant to this class include:

  1. Robyn Lutz: "Software Engineering for Safety: A Roadmap".
  2. Bev Littlewood and Lorenzo Strigini: "Software Reliability and Dependability: A Roadmap".

Prepared by Jeff Tian (tian@engr.smu.edu). Last update Jan. 7, 2003.

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