© 2014, IJARCSMS All Rights Reserved 99 | P age ISSN: 2321-7782 (Online) Volume 2, Issue 7, July 2014 International Journal of Advance Research in Computer Science and Management Studies Research Article / Survey Paper / Case Study Available online at: www.ijarcsms.com A New Classification and Applicability of Software Reliability Models Kuldeep Singh Kaswan 1 Research Scholar, Department of Computer Science Banasthali Vidyapith, Banasthali Rajasthan – India Sunita Choudhary 2 Department of Computer Science Banasthali Vidyapith, Banasthali Rajasthan – India Kapil Sharma 3 Department of Computer Science & Engineering Delhi Technological University Delhi – India Abstract: Today everyone demands for error free software, as we have already seen that even a single software error can results in a terrific loss and damage for life. It is the significance of software reliability in software development that today there are a number of reliability models available in software engineering. These models are classified into different categories and their classifications, are based on different parameters such as failure history, data requirements, number of failure counting, probabilistic assumptions, software structure, nature of debugging strategy, software development life cycle (SDLC) etc. These classifications have an important role in software reliability modeling. In this paper, we have discussed the existing classifications of software reliability models and further purposed a new classification scheme based on applicability of software reliability models according to the software development life cycle including the maintenance phase, which plays a critical role in software development now a days in the competitive world. Keywords: Software Reliability models, empirical models, Black box, White box, SRGM, SDLC, NHPP. I. INTRODUCTION Software engineering is an engineering discipline that is concerned with all aspects of software production. According to IEEE definition Software Engineering: is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software; that is, the application of engineering to software. Software reliability, an important attribute of software quality, can be defined as the probability of failure-free software operation for a specified period of time in a specified environment [1], [2], [3]. During different phases of software development life cycle software failures are introduced by the system analysts, designers, programmers and managers. To detect and remove these errors, the software system is tested. The quality of software system in terms of reliability is measured by the removal of these errors. This paper is organized as follows: section II includes need of classification, existing classifications and potential gap between these classifications. In section III a new classification as per Software Development Life Cycle is introduced. Applicability of these software reliability models as per SDLC is given in section IV. Finally, the paper concludes with section V.