Software Metrics

Generating software metrics with Polyspace

Software metrics are an important aspect in determining software quality. You can use these metrics to determine when software is ready for production and for guidance at various stages in the development process. A variety of automated tools produce software metrics, including the Polyspace products. Monitoring these metrics is an important task in developing critical embedded software systems, especially systems that require certification.

Examples of software metrics include:

• Comment density of a source file
• Cyclomatic complexity
• Number of lines, parameters, parameters, call levels, etc. in a function
• Identified run-time errors in the software

Software metrics are instrumental in establishing software quality objectives for developing high-quality software. By establishing thresholds for specific software metrics, you can determine if your quality objectives have been met. When a threshold is either met or exceeded, QA teams can recommend that the software be promoted to the next stage of the development process.

Tools like the Polyspace products can help automate the production of software metrics. You can generate these metrics for each version or build of the software. Using a web-based dashboard, you monitor the metrics and drill down to the function level to obtain more detailed information about software. You can apply thresholds to check if certain software quality objectives have been met.

Examples and How To

• Eliminating Critical Software Errors in Embedded Code Using Static Code Analysis (Webinar)
• Understand C/C++ Code Design with Polyspace Products 3:50 (Video)

Software Reference

• Polyspace Client for C/C++ (Product)
• Polyspace Client for Ada (Product)

See also: Polyspace code verification products, verification, validation, and test, embedded systems