结合多元度量指标软件缺陷预测研究进展

软件缺陷预测可帮助开发人员提前预测缺陷程序,合理分配有限的测试资源。软件缺陷预测的准确度不仅依赖于预测方法的选择,更依赖于软件的度量指标。因此,结合多元度量指标进行软件缺陷预测已成为当前的研究热点。从度量指标出发,对传统度量指标、多元度量指标以及结合多元度量指标的缺陷预测的研究进展进行了系统介绍。主要工作包含：介绍了传统的代码和过程度量指标、基于传统度量指标的软件缺陷预测模型以及影响数据质量的因素;阐述了语义结构度量指标;分析列举了当前用于软件缺陷预测的评价指标;结合预测粒度、传统度量指标、语义结构度量指标、跨项目软件缺陷预测对多元度量指标软件缺陷预测未来的研究趋势进行了展望。     

Studying the impact of social interactions on software quality

Correcting software defects accounts for a significant amount of resources in a software project. To make best use of testing efforts, researchers have studied statistical models to predict in which parts of a software system future defects are likely to occur. By studying the mathematical relations between predictor variables used in these models, researchers can form an increased understanding of the important connections between development activities and software quality. Predictor variables used in past top-performing models are largely based on source code-oriented metrics, such as lines of code or number of changes. However, source code is the end product of numerous interlaced and collaborative activities carried out by developers. Traces of such activities can be found in the various repositories used to manage development efforts. In this paper, we develop statistical models to study the impact of social interactions in a software project on software quality. These models use predictor variables based on social information mined from the issue tracking and version control repositories of two large open-source software projects. The results of our case studies demonstrate the impact of metrics from four different dimensions of social interaction on post-release defects. Our findings show that statistical models based on social information have a similar degree of explanatory power as traditional models. Furthermore, our results demonstrate that social information does not substitute, but rather augments traditional source code-based metrics used in defect prediction models.     

基于演化数据的软件缺陷预测性能改进

软件持续演化已经是不争的事实,演化意味着需求的变化,也就必然导致了缺陷的不断产生.现有的缺陷预测技术多偏重于基于软件工作制品,如文档、代码、测试用例等的属性来预测缺陷,但如果把软件看作一种物种,其生命周期内的演化本质上是一个物种的逐步进化,其缺陷的表现也必然带着该物种的特征,而且还受到进化历史中的演化轨迹的影响.已有一些研究人员开始研究软件演化过程,并提出了一些演化度量元.研究和提出了可以刻画软件演化轨迹的两类演化度量元,并通过案例研究,建立缺陷预测模型.在6个著名开源软件数据集上训练和验证了由软件演化度量元建立的缺陷预测模型,获得了良好的预测性能,验证了演化度量元对缺陷预测性能的改进.     

Estimating software readiness using predictive models

In this study, defect tracking is used as a proxy method to predict software readiness. The number of remaining defects in an application under development is one of the most important factors that allow one to decide if a piece of software is ready to be released. By comparing predicted number of faults and number of faults discovered in testing, software manager can decide whether the software is likely ready to be released or not.The predictive model developed in this research can predict: (i) the number of faults (defects) likely to exist, (ii) the estimated number of code changes required to correct a fault and (iii) the estimated amount of time (in minutes) needed to make the changes in respective classes of the application. The model uses product metrics as independent variables to do predictions. These metrics are selected depending on the nature of source code with regards to architecture layers, types of faults and contribution factors of these metrics. The use of neural network model with genetic training strategy is introduced to improve prediction results for estimating software readiness in this study. This genetic-net combines a genetic algorithm with a statistical estimator to produce a model which also shows the usefulness of inputs.The model is divided into three parts: (1) prediction model for presentation logic tier (2) prediction model for business tier and (3) prediction model for data access tier. Existing object-oriented metrics and complexity software metrics are used in the business tier prediction model. New sets of metrics have been proposed for the presentation logic tier and data access tier. These metrics are validated using data extracted from real world applications. The trained models can be used as tools to assist software mangers in making software release decisions.     

基于软件度量的Solidity智能合约缺陷预测方法

随着区块链技术的兴起,智能合约安全问题被越来越多的研究者和企业重视,目前已有一些针对智能合约缺陷检测技术的研究.软件缺陷预测技术是软件缺陷检测技术的有效补充,能够优化测试资源分配,提高软件测试效率.然而,目前还没有针对智能合约的软件缺陷预测研究.针对这一问题,提出了面向Solidity智能合约的缺陷预测方法.首先,设计了一组针对Solidity智能合约特有的变量、函数、结构和Solidity语言特性的度量元集(smart contract-Solidity, SC-Sol度量元集),并将其与重点考虑面向对象特征的度量元集(code complexity and features of object-oriented program, COOP度量元集)组合为COOP-SC-Sol度量元集.然后,从Solidity智能合约代码中提取相关度量元信息,并结合缺陷检测结果,构建Solidity智能合约缺陷数据集.在此基础上,应用了7种回归模型和6种分类模型进行Solidity智能合约的缺陷预测,以验证不同度量元集和不同模型在缺陷数量和倾向性预测上的性能差异.实验结果表明,相对于COOP度量元集...     

基于代码自然性的切片粒度缺陷预测方法

软件缺陷预测是软件质量保障领域的一个活跃话题,它可以帮助开发人员发现潜在的缺陷并更好地利用资源.如何为预测系统设计更具判别力的度量元,并兼顾性能与可解释性,一直是人们致力于的研究方向.针对这一挑战,提出了一种基于代码自然性特征的缺陷预测方法——CNDePor.该方法通过正逆双向度量代码和利用质量信息对样本加权的方式改进语言模型,提高了模型所得交叉熵（CE）类度量元的缺陷判别力.针对粗粒度缺陷预测存在难以聚焦缺陷区域、代码审查成本高的不足,研究了一种新的细粒度缺陷预测问题——面向语句的切片级缺陷预测.在此问题上,设计了4种度量元,并在两类安全缺陷数据集上验证了度量元和CNDePor方法的有效性.实验结果表明：CE类度量元具有可学习性,它们蕴涵了语言模型从语料库中学习到的相关知识;改进的CE类度量元的判别力明显优于原始度量元和传统规模度量元;CNDePor方法较传统缺陷预测方法和已有的基于代码自然性的方法有显著优势,较先进的基于深度学习的方法具有可比性性能和更强的可解释性.     

基于拟似然估计方法的软件失效预测模型

软件缺陷预测是软件可靠性研究的一个重要方向。由于影响软件失效的因素有很多,相互之间关联关系复杂,在分析建模中常用联合分布函数来描述,而实际应用中难以确定,直接影响软件失效预测。基于拟似然估计提出一种软件失效预测方法,通过主成分分析筛选影响软件失效的主要影响因素,建立多因素软件失效预测模型,利用这些影响因素的数字特征(均值函数和方差函数)以及采用拟似然估计方法估计出模型参数,进而对软件失效进行预测分析。基于两个真实数据集Eclipse JDT和Eclipse PDE,与经典Logistic回归和Probit回归预测模型进行实验对比分析,结果表明采用拟似然估计对软件缺陷预测具有可行性,且预测精度均优于这两种经典回归预测模型。     

Practical considerations in deploying statistical methods for defect prediction: A case study within the Turkish telecommunications industry

ContextBuilding defect prediction models in large organizations has many challenges due to limited resources and tight schedules in the software development lifecycle. It is not easy to collect data, utilize any type of algorithm and build a permanent model at once. We have conducted a study in a large telecommunications company in Turkey to employ a software measurement program and to predict pre-release defects. Based on our prior publication, we have shared our experience in terms of the project steps (i.e. challenges and opportunities). We have further introduced new techniques that improve our earlier results.ObjectiveIn our previous work, we have built similar predictors using data representative for US software development. Our task here was to check if those predictors were specific solely to US organizations or to a broader class of software.MethodWe have presented our approach and results in the form of an experience report. Specifically, we have made use of different techniques for improving the information content of the software data and the performance of a Naïve Bayes classifier in the prediction model that is locally tuned for the company. We have increased the information content of the software data by using module dependency data and improved the performance by adjusting the hyper-parameter (decision threshold) of the Naïve Bayes classifier. We have reported and discussed our results in terms of defect detection rates and false alarms. We also carried out a cost–benefit analysis to show that our approach can be efficiently put into practice.ResultsOur general result is that general defect predictors, which exist across a wide range of software (in both US and Turkish organizations), are present. Our specific results indicate that concerning the organization subject to this study, the use of version history information along with code metrics decreased false alarms by 22%, the use of dependencies between modules further reduced false alarms by 8%, and the decision threshold optimization for the Naïve Bayes classifier using code metrics and version history information further improved false alarms by 30% in comparison to a prediction using only code metrics and a default decision threshold.ConclusionImplementing statistical techniques and machine learning on a real life scenario is a difficult yet possible task. Using simple statistical and algorithmic techniques produces an average detection rate of 88%. Although using dependency data improves our results, it is difficult to collect and analyze such data in general. Therefore, we would recommend optimizing the hyper-parameter of the proposed technique, Naïve Bayes, to calibrate the defect prediction model rather than employing more complex classifiers. We also recommend that researchers who explore statistical and algorithmic methods for defect prediction should spend less time on their algorithms and more time on studying the pragmatic considerations of large organizations.     

An effective fault prediction model developed using an extreme learning machine with various kernel methods

System analysts often use software fault prediction models to identify fault-prone modules during the design phase of the software development life cycle. The models help predict faulty modules based on the software metrics that are input to the models. In this study, we consider 20 types of metrics to develop a model using an extreme learning machine associated with various kernel methods. We evaluate the effectiveness of the mode using a proposed framework based on the cost and efficiency in the testing phases. The evaluation process is carried out by considering case studies for 30 object-oriented software systems. Experimental results demonstrate that the application of a fault prediction model is suitable for projects with the percentage of faulty classes below a certain threshold, which depends on the efficiency of fault identification (low: 47.28%; median: 39.24%; high: 25.72%). We consider nine feature selection techniques to remove the irrelevant metrics and to select the best set of source code metrics for fault prediction.     

Value-cognitive boosting with a support vector machine for cross-project defect prediction

It is well-known that software defect prediction is one of the most important tasks for software quality improvement. The use of defect predictors allows test engineers to focus on defective modules. Thereby testing resources can be allocated effectively and the quality assurance costs can be reduced. For within-project defect prediction (WPDP), there should be sufficient data within a company to train any prediction model. Without such local data, cross-project defect prediction (CPDP) is feasible since it uses data collected from similar projects in other companies. Software defect datasets have the class imbalance problem increasing the difficulty for the learner to predict defects. In addition, the impact of imbalanced data on the real performance of models can be hidden by the performance measures chosen. We investigate if the class imbalance learning can be beneficial for CPDP. In our approach, the asymmetric misclassification cost and the similarity weights obtained from distributional characteristics are closely associated to guide the appropriate resampling mechanism. We performed the effect size A-statistics test to evaluate the magnitude of the improvement. For the statistical significant test, we used Wilcoxon rank-sum test. The experimental results show that our approach can provide higher prediction performance than both the existing CPDP technique and the existing class imbalance technique.     

Towards building a universal defect prediction model with rank transformed predictors

Software defects can lead to undesired results. Correcting defects costs 50 % to 75 % of the total software development budgets. To predict defective files, a prediction model must be built with predictors (e.g., software metrics) obtained from either a project itself (within-project) or from other projects (cross-project). A universal defect prediction model that is built from a large set of diverse projects would relieve the need to build and tailor prediction models for an individual project. A formidable obstacle to build a universal model is the variations in the distribution of predictors among projects of diverse contexts (e.g., size and programming language). Hence, we propose to cluster projects based on the similarity of the distribution of predictors, and derive the rank transformations using quantiles of predictors for a cluster. We fit the universal model on the transformed data of 1,385 open source projects hosted on SourceForge and GoogleCode. The universal model obtains prediction performance comparable to the within-project models, yields similar results when applied on five external projects (one Apache and four Eclipse projects), and performs similarly among projects with different context factors. At last, we investigate what predictors should be included in the universal model. We expect that this work could form a basis for future work on building a universal model and would lead to software support tools that incorporate it into a regular development workflow.     

A fuzzy logic based approach for phase-wise software defects prediction using software metrics

ContextThe software defect prediction during software development has recently attracted the attention of many researchers. The software defect density indicator prediction in each phase of software development life cycle (SDLC) is desirable for developing a reliable software product. Software defect prediction at the end of testing phase may not be more beneficial because the changes need to be performed in the previous phases of SDLC may require huge amount of money and effort to be spent in order to achieve target software quality. Therefore, phase-wise software defect density indicator prediction model is of great importance.ObjectiveIn this paper, a fuzzy logic based phase-wise software defect prediction model is proposed using the top most reliability relevant metrics of the each phase of the SDLC.MethodIn the proposed model, defect density indicator in requirement analysis, design, coding and testing phase is predicted using nine software metrics of these four phases. The defect density indicator metric predicted at the end of the each phase is also taken as an input to the next phase. Software metrics are assessed in linguistic terms and fuzzy inference system has been employed to develop the model.ResultsThe predictive accuracy of the proposed model is validated using twenty real software project data. Validation results are satisfactory. Measures based on the mean magnitude of relative error and balanced mean magnitude of relative error decrease significantly as the software project size increases.ConclusionIn this paper, a fuzzy logic based model is proposed for predicting software defect density indicator at each phase of the SDLC. The predicted defects of twenty different software projects are found very near to the actual defects detected during testing. The predicted defect density indicators are very helpful to analyze the defect severity in different artifacts of SDLC of a software project.     

基于数据过采样和集成学习的软件缺陷数目预测方法

预测软件缺陷的数目有助于软件测试人员更多地关注缺陷数量多的模块,从而合理地分配有限的测试资源。针对软件缺陷数据集不平衡的问题,提出了一种基于数据过采样和集成学习的软件缺陷数目预测方法——SMOTENDEL。首先,对原始软件缺陷数据集进行n次过采样,得到n个平衡的数据集;然后基于这n个平衡的数据集利用回归算法训练出n个个体软件缺陷数目预测模型;最后对这n个个体模型进行结合得到一个组合软件缺陷数目预测模型,利用该组合预测模型对新的软件模块的缺陷数目进行预测。实验结果表明SMOTENDEL相比原始的预测方法在性能上有较大提升,当分别利用决策树回归（DTR）、贝叶斯岭回归（BRR）和线性回归（LR）作为个体预测模型时,提升率分别为7.68%、3.31%和3.38%。     

一种基于主题模型的软件缺陷预测技术研究

软件缺陷预测通常针对代码表面特征训练预测模型并对新样本进行预测,忽视了代码背后隐藏的不同技术方面和主题,从而导致预测不准确。针对这种问题,提出了一种基于主题模型的软件缺陷预测方法。将软件代码库视为不同技术方面和主题的集合,不同的主题或技术方面有不同的缺陷倾向。采用LDA主题模型对不同主题及其缺陷倾向进行建模,根据建模结果计算主题度量,并将传统度量方式和主题度量结合进行模型训练和预测。实验结果显示,该方法相对传统的软件缺陷预测技术有高的准确性,并且可以在软件演化中保证模型相对稳定,可以适用于各种缺陷预测任务。     

静态软件缺陷预测方法研究

静态软件缺陷预测是软件工程数据挖掘领域中的一个研究热点.通过分析软件代码或开发过程,设计出与软件缺陷相关的度量元;随后,通过挖掘软件历史仓库来创建缺陷预测数据集,旨在构建出缺陷预测模型,以预测出被测项目内的潜在缺陷程序模块,最终达到优化测试资源分配和提高软件产品质量的目的.对近些年来国内外学者在该研究领域取得的成果进行了系统的总结.首先,给出了研究框架并识别出了影响缺陷预测性能的3个重要影响因素:度量元的设定、缺陷预测模型的构建方法和缺陷预测数据集的相关问题;接着,依次总结了这3个影响因素的已有研究成果;随后,总结了一类特殊的软件缺陷预测问题(即,基于代码修改的缺陷预测)的已有研究工作;最后,对未来研究可能面临的挑战进行了展望.     

Empirical Validation of Three Software Metrics Suites to Predict Fault-Proneness of Object-Oriented Classes Developed Using Highly Iterative or Agile Software Development Processes

Empirical validation of software metrics suites to predict fault proneness in object-oriented (OO) components is essential to ensure their practical use in industrial settings. In this paper, we empirically validate three OO metrics suites for their ability to predict software quality in terms of fault-proneness: the Chidamber and Kemerer (CK) metrics, Abreu's Metrics for Object-Oriented Design (MOOD), and Bansiya and Davis' Quality Metrics for Object-Oriented Design (QMOOD). Some CK class metrics have previously been shown to be good predictors of initial OO software quality. However, the other two suites have not been heavily validated except by their original proposers. Here, we explore the ability of these three metrics suites to predict fault-prone classes using defect data for six versions of Rhino, an open-source implementation of JavaScript written in Java. We conclude that the CK and QMOOD suites contain similar components and produce statistical models that are effective in detecting error-prone classes. We also conclude that the class components in the MOOD metrics suite are not good class fault-proneness predictors. Analyzing multivariate binary logistic regression models across six Rhino versions indicates these models may be useful in assessing quality in OO classes produced using modern highly iterative or agile software development processes.     

Software defect association mining and defect correction effort prediction

Much current software defect prediction work focuses on the number of defects remaining in a software system. In this paper, we present association rule mining based methods to predict defect associations and defect correction effort. This is to help developers detect software defects and assist project managers in allocating testing resources more effectively. We applied the proposed methods to the SEL defect data consisting of more than 200 projects over more than 15 years. The results show that, for defect association prediction, the accuracy is very high and the false-negative rate is very low. Likewise, for the defect correction effort prediction, the accuracy for both defect isolation effort prediction and defect correction effort prediction are also high. We compared the defect correction effort prediction method with other types of methods - PART, C4.5, and Naive Bayes - and show that accuracy has been improved by at least 23 percent. We also evaluated the impact of support and confidence levels on prediction accuracy, false-negative rate, false-positive rate, and the number of rules. We found that higher support and confidence levels may not result in higher prediction accuracy, and a sufficient number of rules is a precondition for high prediction accuracy.     

基于混合采样与Random_Stacking的软件缺陷预测

现有的软件缺陷预测方法面临数据类别不平衡性、高维数据处理等问题。如何有效解决上述问题已成为目前相关领域的研究热点。针对软件缺陷预测所面临的类别不平衡、预测精度低等问题,本文提出一种基于混合采样与Random_Stacking的软件缺陷预测算法DP_HSRS。DP_HSRS算法首先采用混合采样算法对不平衡数据进行平衡化处理;然后在该平衡数据集上采用Random_Stacking算法进行软件缺陷预测。Random_Stacking算法是对传统Stacking算法的一种有效改进,它通过融合多个经典的分类算法以及Bagging机制构建多个Stacking分类器,对多个Stacking分类器进行投票,得到一个集成分类器,最后利用该集成分类器对软件缺陷进行预测。通过在NASA MDP数据集上的实验结果表明,DP_HSRS算法的性能优于现有的算法,具有更好的缺陷预测性能。     

Bayesian statistical effort prediction models for data-centred 4GL software development

Constructing an accurate effort prediction model is a challenge in Software Engineering. This paper presents three Bayesian statistical software effort prediction models for database-oriented software systems, which are developed using a specific 4GL toolsuite. The models consist of specification-based software size metrics and development team's productivity metric. The models are constructed based on the subjective knowledge of human expert and calibrated using empirical data collected from 17 software systems developed in the target environment. The models' predictive accuracy is evaluated using subsets of the same data, which were not used for the models' calibration. The results show that the models have achieved very good predictive accuracy in terms of MMRE and pred measures. Hence, it is confirmed that the Bayesian statistical models can predict effort successfully in the target environment. In comparison with commonly used multiple linear regression models, the Bayesian statistical models'predictive accuracy is equivalent in general. However, when the number of software systems used for the models' calibration becomes smaller than five, the predictive accuracy of the best Bayesian statistical models are significantly better than the multiple linear regression model. This result suggests that the Bayesian statistical models would be a better choice when software organizations/practitioners do not posses sufficient empirical data for the models' calibration. The authors expect these findings to encourage more researchers to investigate the use of Bayesian statistical models for predicting software effort.