Why failure rates observe Zipf's law in operational software
Martin Trachtenberg · IEEE Transactions on Reliability · 1992
The author proposes a model showing how software developers, when attempting to produce software of a given reliability level with a minimum of resources, create software whose fault content observes Phillip's and Zipf's laws. He also proposes a software reliability model based on Zipf's law that fits Adam's reliability data on nine software systems with an average correlation coefficient of 0.986. He concludes that software, when and only when optimally developed, displays operational reliability patterns conforming to Zipf's law.>