SOFTWARE TOOLS: New suite provides End-to-End Software Verification

With the integration of requirements management, LDRA has enabled companies for the first time to trace, verify, and test their code through all stages of software development from requirements through static and dynamic analysis and testing.

By tailoring standardized best-programming practices for cross-industry adoption, LDRA extends the cost- and resource-savings advantages to the embedded industry as a whole.

Managing requirements throughout the software development lifecycle gives customers a critical cost-cutting measure absolutely essential during this economic downturn.

Reports indicate that up to 70% of project defects are attributed to requirements management and traceability. By integrating requirements management into the LDRA tool suite using TBreq, LDRA's tool for next-generation management and complete automation of requirements traceability, developers can reduce software errors, project costs, and resource constraints.

TBreq creates a relationship between requirements, code modules, and verification artifacts (static analysis, dynamic analysis, unit- and system-level test). All informal changes and test results are recorded, and any requirements impacted by these changes are highlighted so that all team members can identify data and code which might be suspect.

Ian Hennell, LDRA Operations Director said the tool suite offers code coverage metrics right down to the object code level, an essential level of detail to combat quality and cost challenges. "Through adopting rigorous standards, non-aerospace companies enhance their development processes, meet industry coding standards, and come closer to achieving zero-defect software," he said.

v8.0 of the LDRA tools suite also introduces a number of ease-of-use optimizations. Thanks, he said, to significant speed improvements developers across multisite deployments can analyse large projects quickly and efficiently from requirements through static and dynamic analysis and testing.

Support for comprehensive coverage analysis automatically links coverage results from system level tests with highly targeted unit level testing.

Following more intuitive organization, structural coverage results are graphically displayed based on a user-defined suite of requirements-based test cases. These coverage results are now integrated into the classic LDRA Testbed coverage reports, enterprise-level TBreq reports, and used to complete your verifications analysis.

Attendees at Embedded Systems Conference can view a demonstration of v8.0 of the LDRA tool suite at the LDRA booth #1824. To learn more go to www.ldra.com.