This workshop will be focused on two discernible objectives: initiating a dialogue concerning the intent of reliability growth testing; and addressing specific aspects of reliability growth models.

Objectives of reliability growth tests have varied among programs, companies, and industries. These objectives vary because the organizations lack a common philosophy, language, approach, and understanding of basic principles which affect the outcome of a growth progarm. during this workshop, the objectives of reliability growth testing will be revisited, and factors affecting growth objectives and influencing both the conduct and results of a given reliability growth test will be discussed. Some of the factors which will be addressed are corporate culture and ability; quality and risk; and X-ware sysytems (hardware, software, and man/machine interfaces).

At the heart of reliability growth measurements is a myriad of reliability growth techniques and models, each with unique attributes designed to plan, predict, present, track, or evaluate equipment MTBFs and reliability growth rates. However, parametric uncertainty inherent to these models directly affects the value of their attributes. The intent of this workshop is to address various forms of uncertainty and to explore methods for incorporating it into a given models. Models generally regarded to have a significant mathematical or probabilistic basis will be the focus of the discussions during this workshop. The workshop will inclue discussion how the reliability growth modeling process is affected by the following factors: qualitative aspects of development, testing and manufacturing; treatment of model and parametric uncertainty; and potential software tools for analysis.

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