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Confidence intervals for capture-recapture estimations in software inspections

Thelin, Thomas LU ; Petersson, H and Runeson, Per LU orcid (2002) In Information and Software Technology 44(12). p.683-702
Abstract
Software inspections are an efficient method to detect faults in software artefacts. In order to estimate the fault content remaining after inspections, a method called capture-recapture has been introduced. Most research published in fault content estimations for software inspections has focused upon point estimations. However, confidence intervals provide more information of the estimation results and are thus preferable. This paper replicates a capture -recapture study and investigates confidence intervals for capture -recapture estimators using data sets from two recently conducted software inspection experiments. Furthermore, a discussion of practical application of capture-recapture with confidence intervals is provided. In... (More)
Software inspections are an efficient method to detect faults in software artefacts. In order to estimate the fault content remaining after inspections, a method called capture-recapture has been introduced. Most research published in fault content estimations for software inspections has focused upon point estimations. However, confidence intervals provide more information of the estimation results and are thus preferable. This paper replicates a capture -recapture study and investigates confidence intervals for capture -recapture estimators using data sets from two recently conducted software inspection experiments. Furthermore, a discussion of practical application of capture-recapture with confidence intervals is provided. In capture-recapture, used for software inspection, most research papers have reported Mh-JK to be the best estimator, but only one study has investigated its subestimators. In addition, confidence intervals based on the log-normal distribution have not been evaluated before with software inspection data. These two investigations together with a discussion provide the main contribution of this paper. The result confirms the conclusions of the replicated study and shows when confidence intervals for capture-recapture estimators can be trusted. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. (Less)
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author
; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
software inspection, confidence interval, capture-recapture models, replication, empirical study
in
Information and Software Technology
volume
44
issue
12
pages
683 - 702
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • wos:000178474600002
  • scopus:0036712711
ISSN
0950-5849
DOI
10.1016/S0950-5849(02)00095-2
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
7ee079b6-5906-4186-9c27-7e2965c84583 (old id 326164)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 17:11:24
date last changed
2022-02-28 02:25:26
@article{7ee079b6-5906-4186-9c27-7e2965c84583,
  abstract     = {{Software inspections are an efficient method to detect faults in software artefacts. In order to estimate the fault content remaining after inspections, a method called capture-recapture has been introduced. Most research published in fault content estimations for software inspections has focused upon point estimations. However, confidence intervals provide more information of the estimation results and are thus preferable. This paper replicates a capture -recapture study and investigates confidence intervals for capture -recapture estimators using data sets from two recently conducted software inspection experiments. Furthermore, a discussion of practical application of capture-recapture with confidence intervals is provided. In capture-recapture, used for software inspection, most research papers have reported Mh-JK to be the best estimator, but only one study has investigated its subestimators. In addition, confidence intervals based on the log-normal distribution have not been evaluated before with software inspection data. These two investigations together with a discussion provide the main contribution of this paper. The result confirms the conclusions of the replicated study and shows when confidence intervals for capture-recapture estimators can be trusted. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.}},
  author       = {{Thelin, Thomas and Petersson, H and Runeson, Per}},
  issn         = {{0950-5849}},
  keywords     = {{software inspection; confidence interval; capture-recapture models; replication; empirical study}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{12}},
  pages        = {{683--702}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Information and Software Technology}},
  title        = {{Confidence intervals for capture-recapture estimations in software inspections}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0950-5849(02)00095-2}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/S0950-5849(02)00095-2}},
  volume       = {{44}},
  year         = {{2002}},
}