8. Software Reliability and Risks

Littlewood & Strigini, The Risks of Software

  1. According to Littlewood and Strigini, why is software reliability so hard to achieve? [John VanEnk]

 

 

 

 

 

  1. What is the implication of the finding that 1/3 of all bugs found were “5000-year” bugs? [Ross Wielard]

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Describe fault tolerance as a method for achieving high reliability. [Alyson Yeates]

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Explain the problems caused by secrecy about bugs. [Joel Baker]

 

 

 

Risk Stories

  1. A task for everyone: do a little research on the web to find a tidbit or story on risks of computing. This could be a story on how a software bug caused a major problem, e.g. shutting down a significant portion of the country for a day. Alternatively, find an item about an area in which we depend on software reliability too much for our own good.  An item from current news would be fine. If you are at a loss for where to find such an item, you might try the Risks Digest at http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/.

 

Write a brief summary of your news item in your daily critique; if we don’t get to them all in class I may mention some of the more interesting ones next time.