A Survey on Software Defect Detection

Abstract: Software defect prediction plays an important role in improving software quality and reducing time and cost for software testing. It is one of the most demanding activities of the testing phase of System Development Life Cycle (SDLC). It identifies defect prone modules that require extensive testing and utilizes testing resources effectively. In large software projects, prediction techniques will play a crucial role in aiding developers for speedy marketing of reliable software products. This survey introduces the common defect prediction process used in the literature, discusses methods to evaluate defect prediction performance and compares various defect prediction techniques that includes metrics, models, and algorithms.  It also deals applications involving defect prediction and other emerging topics. Finally, this survey assists to identify challenging issues that creep up during software defect prediction.

Keywords: Software defect, Clustering, Classification, Prediction