CSE 8317 (Spring, 2011)

Other Books and Important SRE/SSE Papers

Here is a list (continuously updated) of other SRE/SSE books, and some important papers or book chapters. Some of the papers were actually recommended by students in my previous 8317 classes (used as their individual study papers or in their research papers). The contents of these papers/chapters roughly correspond to the topics that we will be covering in our CSE 8317 class, so they can be used as additional reading material.

Other Books, with my brief comments

  1. J. D. Musa, A. Iannino and K. Okumoto, "Software Reliability: Measurement, Prediction, Application", McGraw-Hill, 1987. ISBN 0-07-044093-X.
    A classic in software reliability engineering. There are two editions, original (1987) and professional (1990). The student should get the original edition for in-depth mathematics used in reliability models.

  2. Debra S. Herrmann, "Software Safety and Reliability: Techniques, Approaches, and Standards of Key Industrial Sectors", IEEE CS Press, 1999. ISBN 0-7695-0299-7.
    I'd emphasize the subtitle "Standards of Key Industrial Sectors", which including (Chapters 3-7) transportation, aerospace, defense, nuclear power, and biomedical industries, as well as some IEC, IEE, and IEEE guidelines/standards.

  3. Shari L. Pfleeger, L. Hatton, C. C. Howell, "Solid Software", Prentice-Hall, 2002. ISBN 0-13-091298-0.
    Covers many techniques for producing "solid" software, with particular emphasis on the ones that are applicable and effective for safety-critical software and systems.

  4. Stephen H. Kan, "Metrics and Models in Software Quality Engineering, 2/e", Addison-Wesley, 2002. ISBN 0-201-72915-6.
    A lot of models and practical information from a former IBMer. Most comprehensive book of its kind.

Papers/Chapters Available Online and Related References

  1. LiAlaeddineTian09 paper available online.
    References most relevant to this class: Several web-specific measurement papers.

  2. MaTian07 paper available online.
    References most relevant to this class: Several ODC/defect analysis papers (mostly also cited below).

  3. Tian-AIC paper available online.
    Notice: pages 36-40 excluded => relevant contents covered by Tian-TSE02 paper below.
    References most relevant to this class: 24 (SRE survey), 38 (OP), 39 (SRE applications and recent development), and 49 (data treatment) listed at the end of the paper.

  4. Tian-TSE02 paper available online.
    References most relevant to this class: 2, 4, 9, 17 (all about data treatment) listed at the end of the paper.

  5. Tian-TSE04 paper available online.
    References most relevant to this class: 1, 3, 11, 14, and 15 (all about web traffic/quality/reliability measurement) listed at the end of the paper.

Notice: The above 5 online papers are required reading.

Papers/references from the bibliography of Tian/SQE book

(Chen et al., 2001); (Duran and Ntafos, 1984); (Frankl et al., 1998); (Gerhart et al., 1994); (Hamlet and Taylor, 1990); (Hamlet et al., 2001); (Horgan and Mathur, 1995); (Malaiya et al., 2002); (King et al., 2000)

Notice 1: Reference style used: (Author-last-name, year) for single author items, (AuthorA and AuthorB, year) for double author items, or (AuthorA et al., year) for items with three or more authors.

Notice 2: Some more specialized references, and many of the more recent ones, not listed in Tian/SQE book are listed below, organized by the three areas (analysis, SRE, SSE).

Defect and Quality/Dependability Analysis Papers

  1. A. A. Avizienis, J.-C. Laprie, B. Randell, and C. Landwehr. Basic concepts and taxonomy of dependable and secure computing. IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, Vol.1, No.1, pp.11-33, Jan., 2004.
  2. V. R. Basili, P. Donzelli, and S. Asgari. A unified model of dependability: Capturing dependability in context. IEEE Software, 21(6):19--25, Nov. 2004.
  3. D. N. Card. Learning from our mistakes with defect causal analysis. IEEE Software, 15(1):56--63, Jan. 1998.
  4. Robyn R. Lutz Ines Carmen Mikulski, "Empirical Analysis of Safety-Critical Anomalies During Operations", IEEE Trans. on Software Engineering, Vol.30, No.3, pp.172-180, March, 2004.
  5. J. Tian, S. Nair, L. Huang, N, Alaeddine and M.F. Siok, "Developing Dependable Systems by Maximizaing Component Diversity", In J. Dong, R. Paul and L.-J. Zhang, editors, High Assurance Services Computing, pp.193-217, Springer-Verlag, 2009,

    There are also several interesting articles in:

Other SRE Papers

  1. Alan Boulanger, Open-source versus proprietary software: Is one more reliable and secure than the other? IBM Systems Journal, 44(2):239-248, 2005.
  2. 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.
  3. Kai-Yuan Cai, Software Reliability Experimentation and Control, J. Computer Science and Technology, 21(5):697-707, Sept. 2006.
  4. Bojan Cukic, "The Virtues of Assessing Software Reliability Early", IEEE Software, Vol.22, No.3, pp.50-53, May/June, 2005.
  5. S. Frolund and R. Guerraoui, e-Transactions: End-to-End Reliability for Three-Tier Architectures, IEEE Trans. on Software Engineering, 28(4):378-395, April 2002.
  6. S. S. Gokhale. Architecture-based software reliability analysis: Overview and limitations. IEEE Trans. on Dependable and Secure Computing, 4(1):32--40, Jan.-Mar. 2007.
  7. S. S. Gokhale and K. S. Trivedi. Analytical models for architecture-based software reliability prediction: A unification framework. IEEE Trans. on Reliability, 55(4):578--590, Dec. 2006.
  8. K. Goseva-Popstojanova and K. S. Trivedi. Architecture-based approaches to software reliability prediction. Computers and Mathematics with Applications, 46(7):1023--1036, Oct. 2003.
  9. C. Huang, M. R. Lyu, and S. Kuo, A unified Scheme of Some Nonhomogenous Poisson Process Models for Software Reliability Estimation, IEEE Trans. on Software Engineering, 29(3):261-269, March 2003.
  10. D.R. Jeske, X. Zhang, and L. Pham, "Adjusting Software Failure Rates That Are Estimated From Test Data", IEEE Trans. on Reliability, Vol.54, No.1, pp.107-114, March, 2005.
  11. S. Kim, F. B. Bastani, I.-L. Yen, and I.-R. Chen. Systematic reliability analysis of a class of application-specific embedded software frameworks. IEEE Trans. on Software Eng., 30(4):218--230, Apr. 2004.
  12. 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.
  13. Vili Podgorelec, Marjan Kericko, Matjaz B. Juric, and Ivan Rozman, Improving the Reliability of Medical Software by Predicting the Dangerous Software Modules, Journal of Medical Systems 29(1):3-11, Feb. 2005.
  14. Wen-Li Wang, Thomas L. Hemminger and Mei-Huei Tang, "A moving average non-homogeneous Poisson process reliability growth model account for software with repair and system structures," IEEE Transactions on Reliability, 56(3):411-421, 2007.
  15. Wen-Li Wang, Dai Pan and Mei-Hwa Chen, Architecture-based software reliability modeling. Journal of Systems and Software 79(1):132-146, 2006
  16. A. P. Wood, Software Reliability from the Customer View, IEEE Computer 36(8):37-42, Aug., 2003.
  17. Y.P. Wu, Q.P. Hu, M. Xie and S.H. Ng, Modeling and Analysis of Software Fault Detection and Correction Process by Considering Time Dependency, IEEE Trans. on Reliability, 56(4):629-642, Dec, 2007.
  18. Sherif Yacoub, Bojan Cukic, and Hany Ammar, A scenario-based reliability analysis approach for component-based software, IEEE Trans. Reliability 53(4):465-480, Dec., 2004.

Other SSE Papers

  1. Jonathan P. Bowen and Michael G. Hinchey, Ten Commandments of Formal Methods ... Ten Years Later, IEEE Computer, 39(1):40-48, Jan, 2006.
  2. Phillipe Cheynet, bodgan Nicolescu, Raoul Velazco, Maurizio Rebaudengo, Matteo Sonza Reorda and Massimo Violante, Experimentally evaluating an automatic approach for generating safety-critical software with respect to transient errors, IEEE Trans. on Nuclear Science 47(6):2231-2236, Dec. 2000.
  3. Alberto Coen-Porisini, Giovanni Denaro, Carlo Ghezzi, and Mauro Pezze, Using Symbolic Execution for Verifying Safety-Critical Systems, Proc. ESEC/FSE 2001 (European Software Engineering Conf.) vienna, Austria, 2001.
  4. 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.
  5. S. Gerhart, D. Craigen and T. Ralston. Regulatory case studies. IEEE Software, 11(1):30--39, Jan. 1994.
  6. J. Knight and B. Littlewood. Critical task of writing dependable software. IEEE Software, 11(1):16--20, Jan. 1994.
  7. N. G. Leveson. Software safety in embedded computer systems. Communications of the ACM, 36(2):34--46, Feb. 1991.
  8. N. G. Leveson. High-pressure steam engines and computer software. IEEE Computer, pages 65--73, Oct. 1994.
  9. N. G. Leveson, A systems-theoretic approach to safety in software-intensive systems, IEEE Transactions on Dependable and Secure Computing, Vol.1, No.1, pp.66-86, Jan., 2004.
  10. N. G. Leveson, The role of software in spacecraft accidents, AIAA Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Vol.41, No.4, July., 2004.
  11. N. G. Leveson and C. Turner. An investigation of the Therac-25 accidents. IEEE Computer, pages 19--41, July 1993.
  12. N. G. Leveson and K. A. Weiss. Making embedded software reuse practical and safe. In Proc. 12th Foundations of Software Engineering Conference (ACM Sigsoft 2004/FSE-12), 2004.
  13. J. S. Norris. Mission-critical development with open source software: Lessons learned. IEEE Software, 21(1):42--49, Jan. 2004.
  14. 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.
  15. J. M. Voas and L. Kassab, Using Assertions to Make Untestable Software More Testable, Software Quality Professional 1(4):31-40, Sep, 1999.

There are also several interesting articles in:

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).
Posted: Jan. 11, 2011.

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