Practical use of software reliability methods in new product development

This paper presents seven software reliability estimation methods studied in the Nokia case unit, which operates in turbulent telecommunications business environment characterised by uncertainty and inability to predict the future. Tens of software reliability models have been developed since the beginning of 1970's. However, a few - if not any - of them have worked optimally across projects. This paper focuses on investigating the practical use of the methods in real-life complex development situations and demonstrates how the methods can be applied to new product development (NPD) process in the case unit. The results show that none of the methods operate alone but need to be combined with each other. Finally, ideas for further research are proposed.