Bayesian Analysis of a Commonly Used Model for Describing Software Failures

In this paper we present a commonly used model for describing software failures, and point out that some of the alternative models can be obtained by assigning specific prior distri- butions for the parameters of this model. The likelihood function of an unknown parameter of the model poses some interesting issues and problems, which can be meaningfully addressed by adopting a Bayesian point of view. We present some real life data on software failures to illustrate the usefulness of the approach taken here.