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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/E063039/1
Title: Investigating code fault proneness using program slicing
Principal Investigator: Hall, Professor T
Other Investigators:
Wernick, Dr PD
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: Information Systems Computing and Maths
Organisation: Brunel University London
Scheme: Standard Research
Starts: 31 March 2008 Ends: 30 March 2009 Value (£): 74,687
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Software Engineering
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
No relevance to Underpinning Sectors
Related Grants:
EP/E055141/1 EP/E056296/1
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
This feasibility study explores the relationship between program slices and faults. The aim is to investigate whether the characteristics of program slices can be used to identify fault-prone code hotspots. Slicing metrics and dependence clusters are used to characterise the slices in a software component. The relationship between the characteristics of those slices in the component and the faults in that component are then analysed. Identifying fault-prone code is difficult and reliable predictors of fault-proneness are not widely reported in the literature. Program slicing is an established software engineering technique to support the detection and correction of known faults. Once a problem has emerged, slicing enables all statements that could have caused that problem to be identified and extracted. This extracted code makes the identification and removal of the fault much easier. We propose to investigate whether slicing could also be a good predictor of latent faults that have not yet caused a problem. The results of this study will show whether the use of program slicing can be extended as a reliable tool to predict fault-prone code. Our previous proof of concept study suggests that this investigation is viable and that slicing may offer valuable insights into fault-proneness.
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Organisation Website: http://www.brunel.ac.uk