Constructing a Bayesian Belief Network to Predict Final Quality in Embedded System Development

Sousuke AMASAKI
Yasunari TAKAGI
Osamu MIZUNO
Tohru KIKUNO

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information and Systems   Vol.E88-D    No.6    pp.1134-1141
Publication Date: 2005/06/01
Online ISSN: 
DOI: 10.1093/ietisy/e88-d.6.1134
Print ISSN: 0916-8532
Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Section on Software Engineering for Embedded Systems)
Category: 
Keyword: 
Bayesian Belief Network,  causal model,  software quality prediction,  

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Summary: 
Recently, software development projects have been required to produce highly reliable systems within a short period and with low cost. In such situation, software quality prediction helps to confirm that the software product satisfies required quality expectations. In this paper, by using a Bayesian Belief Network (BBN), we try to construct a prediction model based on relationships elicited from the embedded software development process. On the one hand, according to a characteristic of embedded software development, we especially propose to classify test and debug activities into two distinct activities on software and hardware. Then we call the proposed model "the BBN for an embedded software development process". On the other hand, we define "the BBN for a general software development process" to be a model which does not consider this classification of activity, but rather, merges them into a single activity. Finally, we conducted experimental evaluations by applying these two BBNs to actual project data. As the results of our experiments show, the BBN for the embedded software development process is superior to the BBN for the general development process and is applicable effectively for effective practical use.


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