Environmental factor and change point based modeling for studying reliability of a software system

Ensuring the reliability of software is a critical task, particularly in the context of open-source projects. The complexity intensifies due to factors such as varying programmer skills, diverse testing environments, and different testing methodologies. This article emphasizes a significant challenge in software reliability—the influence of environmental factors throughout the software's life cycle. The proposed solution involves a novel Software Reliability Growth Model that considers time-dependent environmental factors, incorporating the change point phenomenon. To validate the model, real failure data from two Apache Software Foundation Projects, Log4j and Lucene, has been utilized, resulting in highly promising and encouraging outcomes.