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Optimal Maintenance Schedules of Computer Software

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2009

Nam-Sook Wee
Nam-Sook Wee
Affiliation:
Department of Management University of Northern lowa Cedar Falls, lowa 52246
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Abstract

We present a decision procedure to determine the optimal maintenance intervals of a computer software throughout its operational phase. Our model accounts for the average cost per each maintenance activity and the damage cost per failure with the future cost discounted. Our decision policy is optimal in the sense that it minimizes the expected total cost. Our model assumes that the total number of errors in the software has a Poisson distribution with known mean λ and each error causes failures independently of other errors at a known constant failure rate. We study the structures of the optimal policy in terms of λ and present efficient numerical algorithms to compute the optimal maintenance time intervals, the optimal total number of maintenances, and the minimal total expected cost throughout the maintenance phase.

Type
Articles
Information
Probability in the Engineering and Informational Sciences , Volume 4 , Issue 2 , April 1990 , pp. 243 - 255
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1990

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