Reliability

Definition: The probability that a system, including all hardware, firmware (code that manages individual hardware components), and software will satisfactorily perform the task for which it was designed or intended, for a specified time, and in a specified environment.

What This Means: If a solution is found reliable that means the components (normally refers to hardware components) that make up that solution can be expected to perform for the duration needed in order for the solution to be successful. This is often achieved through hardware redundancy (See system redundancy).

The No Child Left Behind Act advanced the use of reliability rules for determining the number of students in a category needed to ensure the data could be considered a true indication of student performance in a group.”

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