BS 5760-8:1998 - Page 2

Reliability of systems, equipment and components. Guide to assessment of reliability of systems containing software | Status: Confirmed, Current

1 Scope This Part of BS 5760 gives guidance on the assessment of reliability of systems containing software with respect to those failures that are due to the activation under certain environmental circumstances of latent design faults located in software items.

NOTE Latent software design faults are due to human error during the definition, design and development phases of system production.

Guidance is provided on the assessment of system reliability both by assessment of the product (the software) and by assessment of the process (the means by which the software is developed). This guidance applies to any system containing software regardless of its intended function. There are limits to the level of reliability that can be assessed quantitatively. This Part of BS 5760 seeks to classify some of the more established methods and to provide guidance to the practitioner in applying them. A bibliography is provided in annex D.