Skip to main content
Log in

Optimal release and patching time of software with warranty

  • Original Article
  • Published:
International Journal of System Assurance Engineering and Management Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

As we know in a competitive market, software firms are looking to sell their products at the earliest for maximum gains. Early delivery of a product is beneficial in terms of gaining market potential but may include some defects in it. On the other hand late delivery of a product ensures reliability but may results into disinterest of the customers. Thus, a vendor must focus on the best time for releasing the software. In recent times, early software release and updating it by providing patches in the operational phase is in trend. Also to satisfy customer’s primary concern of reliable software, firms are providing warranty on their products. Warranty period is the time in which firm provide assurance to the customers that under this period product will work properly and if any defect is found, firm will either repair or replace the software without charging the customer. But servicing during warranty period by updating with patches is also not economical from firm’s point of view. Hence it is important to find the optimal patch release time. In this paper we have proposed a generalized framework to find out the optimal release and patching time of software under warranty so that the total cost is minimized. Numerical example is given at the end to validate the proposed cost model.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Arora A, Caulkins JP, Telang R (2006) Research note: sell first, fix later: impact of patching on software quality. Manag Sci 52(3):465–471

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cavusoglu Hasan, Cavusoglu Huseyin, Zhang Jun (2008) Security patch management: share the burden or share the damage? INFORMS 54:657–670

    Google Scholar 

  • Dey D, Lahiri A, Zhang G (2015) Optimal policies for security patch management. INFORMS J Comput 27(3):462–477

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Dohi T, Kaio N, Osaki S (1997) Optimal Software Release Policies with Debugging Time Lag. Int J Reliab, Qual Saf Eng 04(03):241–255

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • HP (2015). http://www.zdnet.com/hp-to-begin-charging-for-firmware-updates-and-service-packs-for-servers-7000026110. Accessed 29 Jan 2016

  • Huang CY (2005) Cost-reliability-optimal release policy for software reliability models incorporating improvements in testing efficiency. J Syst Softw 77:139–155

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jiang Z, Sarkar S, Jacob VS (2012) Post-release testing and software release policy for enterprise-level systems. Inf Syst Res 23(3, Part 1 of 2):635–657

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kapur PK, Garg RB (1989) Cost-reliability optimum release policies for software system under penalty cost. Int J Syst Sci 20:2547–2562

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Kapur PK, Garg RB (1991) Optimal software release policies for software systems with testing effort. Int J Syst Sci 22(9):1563–1571

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kapur PK, Singh O, Shrivastava AK (2014a) Optimal price and testing time of a software under warranty and two types of imperfect debugging. Int J Syst Assur Eng Manag 5:120–126

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kapur PK, Shrivastava AK (2015) When to release and stop testing of a software: A new Insight, published in conference proceedings of international conference on reliability, infocom technology and optimization (trends and future directions), held during October 2-4, 2015 at Amity University Uttar Pradesh, Noida., pp 1–6

  • Kapur PK, Agarwal S, Garg RB (1994) Bi-criterion release policy for exponential software reliabilitygrowth models. Rech Op/Op Res 28:165–180

    Google Scholar 

  • Kapur PK, Pham H, Gupta A, Jha PC (2011) Software reliability assessment with OR applications. Springer Series in Reliability Engineering, London

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Kapur P.K, Khatri S.K, Singh O, Shrivastava A.K, (2014). When to stop testing under warranty using SRGM with change point, In the IEEE Xplore conference proceeding of International Conference on IT in Business, Industry & Govt., CSIBIG held during March 8–9, 2014 at Sri Aurobindo Institute of Technology Indore Ujjain Highway Indore, pp. 200–206

  • Kapur PK, Singh O, Shrivastava AK (2014c) Optimal price and testing time of a software under warranty and two types of imperfect debugging. Int J Syst Assurance Engineering and Management 5:120–126

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Luo C, Okamura H, Dohi T (2015) Optimal planning for open source software updates. Proc IMechE Part O: J Risk Reliab. doi:10.1177/1748006x15586507

    Google Scholar 

  • Okamura H, Tokuzane M, Dohi T (2009) Optimal security patch release timing under non-homogeneous vulnerability-discovery processes, Proceedings of the 20th international symposium on software reliability engineering (ISSRE ‘09), Mysuru, India, pp 120–8

  • Okumoto K, Goel AL (1980) Optimum release time for software systems based on reliability and coat criteria. J Syst Softw 1:315–318

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pham H, Zhang X (1999) A software cost model with warranty and risk costs. IEEE Trans Comp 48(1):71–75

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Singh O, Kapur PK, Shrivastava AK, Kumar V (2015) Release time problem with multiple constraints. Int J Syst Assur Eng Manag 6(1):83–91

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • The 30-year-old prank that became the first computer virus, http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/12/14/first_virus_elk_cloner_creator_interviewed/

  • Wood A (1996) Predicting software reliability. IEEE 29:69–77

    Google Scholar 

  • Yamada S (2014) Software reliability modeling: fundamentals and applications. Springer, Tokyo/Heidelberg

    Book  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Yamada S, Osaki S (1987) Optimal software release policies with simultaneous cost and reliability requirements. Eur J Oper Res 31:46–51

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Yang B, Xie M (2000) A study of operational and testing reliability in software reliability analysis. Reliab Eng Syst Saf 70:323–329

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yun WY, Bai DS (1990) Optimum software release policy with random life cycle. IEEE Trans Reliab 39(2):338–353

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yogita Kansal.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Kansal, Y., Singh, G., Kumar, U. et al. Optimal release and patching time of software with warranty. Int J Syst Assur Eng Manag 7, 462–468 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13198-016-0510-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13198-016-0510-7

Keywords

Navigation