
INTRODUCTION TO SOFTWARE ENGINEERING 13
4. Software doesn’t wear out. There is a well-known “bath-tub curve” in
reliability studies for hardware products. Figure 1.3 depicts the failure rate as
a function of time for hardware. The relationship is often called the “bath-tub
curve.”
There are three phases for the life of a hardware product. The initial phase
is the burn-in phase, where failure intensity is high. The product is tested in the
industry before delivery. Due to testing and fixing faults, failure intensity will
come down initially and may stabilize after a certain time. The second phase is the
useful life phase where failur