On the method of pivoting the CDF for exact confidence intervals with illustration for exponential mean under life-test with time constraints

Two requirements for pivoting a cumulative distribution function (CDF) in order to construct exact confidence intervals or bounds for a real-valued parameter $\theta$ are the monotonicity of this CDF with respect to $\theta$ and the existence of solutions of some pertinent equations for $\theta$. The second requirement is not fulfilled by the CDF of the maximum likelihood estimator of the exponential scale parameter when the data come from some life-testing scenarios such as type-I censoring, hybrid type-I censoring, and progressive type-I censoring that are subject to time constraints. However, the method has been used in these cases probably because the non-existence of the solution usually happens only with small probability. Here, we illustrate the problem by giving formal details in the case of type-I censoring and by providing some further examples. We also present a suitable extension of the basic pivoting method which is applicable in situations wherein the considered equations have no solution.