Statistics, Testing, and Defense Acquisition

Statistics, Testing, and Defense Acquisition

Background Papers

  • Author: Rolph, John E.; Steffey, Duane L.; Cohen, Michael L.
  • Publisher: National Academies Press
  • ISBN: 9780309066273
  • eISBN Pdf: 9780309557108
  • eISBN Epub: 9780309184083
  • Place of publication:  United States
  • Year of digital publication: 1999
  • Month: August
  • Pages: 181
  • DDC: 350
  • Language: English

The Panel on Statistical Methods for Testing and Evaluating Defense Systems had a broad mandate—to examine the use of statistics in conjunction with defense testing. This involved examining methods for software testing, reliability test planning and estimation, validation of modeling and simulation, and use of modem techniques for experimental design. Given the breadth of these areas, including the great variety of applications and special issues that arise, making a contribution in each of these areas required that the Panel's work and recommendations be at a relatively general level. However, a variety of more specific research issues were either brought to the Panel's attention by members of the test and acquisition community, e.g., what was referred to as Dubin's challenge (addressed in the Panel's interim report), or were identified by members of the panel. In many of these cases the panel thought that a more in-depth analysis or a more detailed application of suggestions or recommendations made by the Panel would either be useful as input to its deliberations or could be used to help communicate more individual views of members of the Panel to the defense test community. This resulted in several research efforts. Given various criteria, especially immediate relevance to the test and acquisition community, the Panel has decided to make available three technical or background papers, each authored by a Panel member jointly with a colleague. These papers are individual contributions and are not a consensus product of the Panel; however, the Panel has drawn from these papers in preparation of its final report: Statistics, Testing, and Defense Acquisition. The Panel has found each of these papers to be extremely useful and they are strongly recommended to readers of the Panel's final report.

  • Statistics, Testing, and Defense Acquisition
  • Copyright
  • Contents
  • Preface
  • 1 Strategic Information Generation and Transmission: the Evolution of Institutions in DoD Operational Testing
    • 1. INTRODUCTION
    • 2. HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF OT&E
    • 3. RELATED LITERATURE
    • 4. THE MODELING FRAMEWORK
    • 5. DECISION PROBLEMS AND GAMES
      • Decision Problem 1
      • Decision Problem 2
      • Game 3
      • Game 4
      • Game 5
    • 6. WELFARE RESULTS
    • 7. QUALITATIVE TESTING RESULTS
    • 8. CONCLUSION
    • Appendix A: Proposition Proofs
    • Appendix B: Second Order Conditions
    • REFERENCES
  • 2 On the Performance of Weibull Life Tests Based on Exponential Life Testing Designs
    • 1. EXPONENTIAL LIFE TESTING
    • 2. WEIBULL CONSIDERATIONS
    • 3. WEIBULL LIFE TESTING—PART I
    • 4. WEIBULL LIFE TESTING—PART 2
    • 5. DISCUSSION
    • REFERENCES
  • 3 Application of Statistical Science to Testing and Evaluating Software Intensive Systems
    • 1. INTRODUCTION
    • 2. FAILURES IN THE FIELD
    • 3. UNDERSTANDING THE SOFTWARE INTENSIVE SYSTEM AND ITS USE
      • First Principles
      • Statistical Testing Process
      • Building Usage Models
      • Software Architecture
      • Assigning Transition Probabilities
    • 4. MODEL VALIDATION WITH CUSTOMER AND USER
      • Operational Profiles
      • Operational Realism
      • Source Entropy
      • Specification Complexity
      • Simulation
      • Model Revision and Revalidation
    • 5. REPRESENTING USAGE MODELS WITH CONSTRAINTS
      • Structural Constraints
      • Usage Constraints
      • Test Management Constraints
      • Objective Functions
    • 6. THE BENEFITS OF USAGE MODELING
      • Testing Scripts
      • Recording Testing Experience
      • Support for Experimental Design
      • Guiding Special Test Situations
      • Generating Random Samples of Test Cases
      • Importance Sampling
      • Test Automation
      • Testing
      • Simulation
    • 7. PRODUCT AND PROCESS IMPROVEMENT
      • Certification
      • Incremental Development
      • Reliability Growth Modeling
      • Combining Testing Information
        • Development
        • Reuse
        • Reengineering
        • Maintenance
        • Porting
    • CONCLUSION
    • REFERENCES

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