ATP: A Component-Based Software Dependability Model
Funded by: U.S. Department of Commerce
Administered by: National Institute of Standards and Technology
Cigital's ATP Award
Cigital (formerly Reliable Software Technologies Corporation) was one of (7) 1995 awardees in the Component-Based Software Focus Program. The program is designed to encourage the development of a market in Component-Based Software, and to encourage the technical and business success of the ATP awardees. The ATP program is judged on it's ultimate contribution to the US economy.
Proposal Abstract
Software systems are becoming larger and more complex. In addition, software has an increasing impact on our work, safety, and health. It is becoming more difficult and more costly to determine a system's reliability. The key to lower cost more reliable systems is dependable component-based software. Achieving this capability will require turning away from today's limited tools, and will be a critical element in the US's challenge to maintain leadership in the software development industry.
The Cigital program investigates the development of new tools that will enable standard dependability measurements of software components, as well as a standard dependability measurement of components composed into a system. The results of this three year program will support component and system developers, and serve as a catalyst for commercial component libraries.
Cigital's unique approach applies a "squeeze-play" to determine a component's dependability. The approach applies the results of sensitivity analysis (the probability that if a fault were to exist, the fault would be observed in the output of the software) against the results of random testing (the probability that a program's failure rate is low). The resulting dependability of a component is the confidence probability that the component cannot fail. A subsequent major step is measuring the dependability of a group of known components, composed together, independent of their application.