Evaluating the performance of software-reliability models

A method of quantifying the performance of software reliability models that was proposed by B. Littlewood (1980) is investigated. The method is essentially a Kolmogorov-Smirnov goodness-of-fit test. It is demonstrated that although the Littlewood method is rather unconventional, the standard Kolmogrov-Smirnov tables (for the simple hypothesis) can be directly applied. On this basis, the kind of performance that can be anticipated from an ideal software reliability model is shown. A performance which overcomes a weakness in the Littlewood method is presented