Approximate Confidence Limits for System Reliability

Abstract

Abstract A method is presented for obtaining system confidence limits based on component test results. The technique consists of estimating the asymptotic variance of the maximum likelihood estimate of system reliability, equating this to the estimate of the variance in binomial sampling, and solving for and , the pseudo-numbers of system tests and successes. These are then substituted into the incomplete beta function and confidence limits obtained in the usual way for binomial sampling.