Process-related reliability-growth modeling-how and why

A process-related nonhomogeneous Poisson process (PRNHPP) is developed. This is carried out by replacing the constant scale factor in the NHP by a process-age-dependent scale factor which increases asymptotically over process-age-time to a mature-process scale factor value. The authors describe the maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) techniques for obtaining parameter values for the PRNHPP, as well as numerical techniques for solving the MLE equations. Various questions the PRNHPP can address are demonstrated by a sample analysis