Assertive Testing

If the above sounds overly pessimistic it is because the question is phrased more or less as an absolute. Instead of asking if there are methods that can predict reliability accurately, it is perhaps more helpful to ask if there are methods that can improve reliability. Here we are on firmer ground. There are indeed generally accepted methods that can measurably improve software reliability. Software testing is an obvious example of such a method, but not the only, and perhaps not even the best such method.