Title
Applying the Mahalanobis-Taguchi strategy for software defect diagnosis
Abstract
The Mahalanobis-Taguchi (MT) strategy combines mathematical and statistical concepts like Mahalanobis distance, Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization and experimental designs to support diagnosis and decision-making based on multivariate data. The primary purpose is to develop a scale to measure the degree of abnormality of cases, compared to "normal" or "healthy" cases, i.e. a continuous scale from a set of binary classified cases. An optimal subset of variables for measuring abnormality is then selected and rules for future diagnosis are defined based on them and the measurement scale. This maps well to problems in software defect prediction based on a multivariate set of software metrics and attributes. In this paper, the MT strategy combined with a cluster analysis technique for determining the most appropriate training set, is described and applied to well-known datasets in order to evaluate the fault-proneness of software modules. The measurement scale resulting from the MT strategy is evaluated using ROC curves and shows that it is a promising technique for software defect diagnosis. It compares favorably to previously evaluated methods on a number of publically available data sets. The special characteristic of the MT strategy that it quantifies the level of abnormality can also stimulate and inform discussions with engineers and managers in different defect prediction situations.
Year
DOI
Venue
2012
10.1007/s10515-011-0091-2
Autom. Softw. Eng.
Keywords
Field
DocType
Software defect prediction,Fault-proneness,Software testing,Mahalanobis-Taguchi strategy
Data mining,Data set,Receiver operating characteristic,Multivariate statistics,Computer science,Software bug,Mahalanobis distance,Artificial intelligence,Software metric,Orthogonalization,Machine learning,Design of experiments
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
19
2
0928-8910
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
4
0.42
18
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Dimitris Liparas1134.35
Lefteris Angelis2129682.51
Robert Feldt333515.99