Testing software to detect and reduce risk
The risk of a piece of software is defined to be the expected cost due to operational failures of the software. Notions of the risk detected by a testing technique and the risk reduction due to a technique are introduced and are used to analytically compare the effectiveness of testing techniques. It is proved that if a certain relation holds between testing techniques A and B, then A is guaranteed to be at least as good as B at detecting and reducing risk, regardless of the particular faults in the program under test or their costs. These results can help practitioners choose an appropriate technique for testing software when risk reduction is the goal.
fault detection program testing software testing software risk