A cost-effectiveness criterion for applying software defect prediction models

Abstract

Ideally, software defect prediction models should help organize software quality assurance (SQA) resources and reduce cost of finding defects by allowing the modules most likely to contain defects to be inspected first. In this paper, we study the cost-effectiveness of applying defect prediction models in SQA and propose a basic cost-effectiveness criterion. The criterion implies that defect prediction models should be applied with caution. We also propose a new metric FN/(FN+TN) to measure the cost-effectiveness of a defect prediction model.