Evaluate Polyspace Code Prover Results Against Software Quality Objectives

Instead of evaluating all results of a Code Prover analysis, you can first define a set of criteria that the analyzed project must meet and compare the Code Prover results against those criteria. The Software Quality Objectives or SQOs are a set of thresholds against which you can compare your verification results. You can develop a review process based on the Software Quality Objectives. In your review process, you consider only those results that cause your project to fail a certain SQO level.

You can use a predefined SQO levels or define your own. To customize SQO levels, see Customize Software Quality Objectives (Polyspace Access).

Specifications of SQO Levels

Following are the quality thresholds specified by each predefined SQO.

 SQO Level 1

Metric	Threshold Value
Comment density of a file	20
Number of paths through a function	80
Number of goto statements	0
Cyclomatic complexity	10
Number of calling functions	5
Number of calls	7
Number of parameters per function	5
Number of instructions per function	50
Number of call levels in a function	4
Number of return statements in a function	1
Language scope, an indicator of the cost of maintaining or changing functions. Calculated as follows: (N1+N2) / (n1+n2) n1 — Number of different operators N1 — Total number of operators n2 — Number of different operands N2 — Total number of operands	4
Number of recursions	0
Number of direct recursions	0
Number of unjustified violations of the following MISRA C™:2004 rules: 5.2 8.11, 8.12 11.2, 11.3 12.12 13.3, 13.4, 13.5 14.4, 14.7 16.1, 16.2, 16.7 17.3, 17.4, 17.5, 17.6 18.4 20.4	0
Number of unjustified violations of the following MISRA C:2012 rules: 8.8, 8.11, and 8.13 11.1, 11.2, 11.4, 11.5, 11.6, and 11.7 14.1 and 14.2 15.1, 15.2, 15.3, and 15.5 17.1 and 17.2 18.3, 18.4, 18.5, and 18.6 19.2 21.3	0
Number of unjustified violations of the following MISRA™ C++ rules: 2-10-2 3-1-3, 3-3-2, 3-9-3 5-0-15, 5-0-18, 5-0-19, 5-2-8, 5-2-9 6-2-2, 6-5-1, 6-5-2, 6-5-3, 6-5-4, 6-6-1, 6-6-2, 6-6-4, 6-6-5 7-5-1, 7-5-2, 7-5-4 8-4-1 9-5-1 10-1-2, 10-1-3, 10-3-1, 10-3-2, 10-3-3 15-0-3, 15-1-3, 15-3-3, 15-3-5, 15-3-6, 15-3-7, 15-4-1, 15-5-1, 15-5-2 18-4-1	0

 SQO Level 2

In addition to all the requirements of SQO Level 1, this level includes the following thresholds:

Metric	Threshold Value
Number of unjustified red checks	0
Number of unjustified Non-terminating call and Non-terminating loop checks	0

 SQO Level 3

In addition to all the requirements of SQO Level 2, this level includes the following thresholds:

Metric	Threshold Value
Number of unjustified gray Unreachable code checks	0

 SQO Level 4

In addition to all the requirements of SQO Level 3, this level includes the following thresholds:

Metric	Threshold Value
Percentage of justified orange checks, calculated as the number of green and justified orange checks divided by the total number of green and orange checks.	Invalid C++ specific operations: 50
	Correctness condition: 60
	Division by zero: 80
	Uncaught exception: 50
	Function not returning value: 80
	Illegally dereferenced pointer: 60
	Return value not initialized: 80
	Non-initialized local variable: 80
	Non-initialized pointer: 60
	Non-initialized variable: 60
	Null this-pointer calling method: 50
	Incorrect object oriented programming: 50
	Out of bounds array index: 80
	Overflow: 60
	Invalid shift operations: 80
	User assertion: 60

 SQO Level 5

In addition to all the requirements of SQO Level 4, this level includes the following thresholds:

Metric	Threshold Value
Number of unjustified violations of the following MISRA C:2004 rules: 6.3 8.7 9.2, 9.3 10.3, 10.5 11.1, 11.5 12.1, 12.2, 12.5, 12.6, 12.9, 12.10 13.1, 13.2, 13.6 14.8, 14.10 15.3 16.3, 16.8, 16.9 19.4, 19.9, 19.10, 19.11, 19.12 20.3	0
Number of unjustified violations of the following MISRA C:2012 rules: 11.8 12.1 and 12.3 13.2 and 13.4 14.4 15.6 and 15.7 16.4 and 16.5 17.4 20.4, 20.6, 20.7, 20.9, and 20.11	0
Number of unjustified violations of the following MISRA C++ rules: 3-4-1, 3-9-2 4-5-1 5-0-1, 5-0-2, 5-0-7, 5-0-8, 5-0-9, 5-0-10, 5-0-13, 5-2-1, 5-2-2, 5-2-7, 5-2-11, 5-3-3, 5-2-5, 5-2-6, 5-3-2, 5-18-1 6-2-1, 6-3-1, 6-4-2, 6-4-6, 6-5-3 8-4-3, 8-4-4, 8-5-2, 8-5-3 11-0-1 12-1-1, 12-8-2 16-0-5, 16-0-6, 16-0-7, 16-2-2, 16-3-1	0
Percentage of justified orange checks, calculated as the number of green and justified orange checks divided by the total number of green and orange checks.	Invalid C++ specific operations: 70
	Correctness condition: 80
	Division by zero: 90
	Uncaught exception: 70
	Function not returning value: 90
	Illegally dereferenced pointer: 70
	Return value not initialized: 90
	Non-initialized local variable: 90
	Non-initialized pointer: 70
	Non-initialized variable: 70
	Null this-pointer calling method: 70
	Incorrect object oriented programming: 70
	Out of bounds array index: 90
	Overflow: 80
	Invalid shift operations: 90
	User assertion: 80

 SQO Level 6

In addition to all the requirements of SQO Level 5, this level includes the following thresholds:

Metric	Threshold Value
Percentage of justified orange checks, calculated as the number of green and justified orange checks divided by the total number of green and orange checks.	Invalid C++ specific operations: 90
	Correctness condition: 100
	Division by zero: 100
	Uncaught exception: 90
	Function not returning value: 100
	Illegally dereferenced pointer: 80
	Return value not initialized: 100
	Non-initialized local variable: 100
	Non-initialized pointer: 80
	Non-initialized variable: 80
	Null this-pointer calling method: 90
	Incorrect object oriented programming: 90
	Out of bounds array index: 100
	Overflow: 100
	Invalid shift operations: 100
	User assertion: 100

 Exhaustive

In addition to all the requirements of SQO Level 6, this level includes the following thresholds. The thresholds for coding rule violations apply only if you check for coding rule violations.

Metric	Threshold Value
Number of unjustified MISRA C and MISRA C++ coding rule violations	0
Number of unjustified red checks	0
Number of unjustified Non-terminating call and Non-terminating loop checks	0
Number of unjustified gray Unreachable code checks	0
Percentage of justified orange checks, calculated as the number of green and justified orange checks divided by the total number of green and orange checks.	100

For information on the rationales behind these levels, see Software Quality Objectives for Source Code.

Compare Verification Results Against Software Quality Objectives

You can compare your verification results against SQOs in the Polyspace^® Access™ web interface. For information about how to do this in the deprecated Polyspace desktop user interface, see Compare Verification Results Against Software Quality Objectives (R2025b).

In the Polyspace Access web interface, you can first determine whether your project fails to attain a certain Quality Objective threshold by looking at the Quality Objectives card on the Project Overview dashboard.

The card shows the percentage of results that you have already fixed or justified in order to attain the threshold. Click the number of remaining findings to open those findings in the Results List. For a more detailed view of the quality of your code against all quality objectives thresholds, open the Quality Objectives dashboard. For more information, see Monitor Code Quality Using Quality Objectives Dashboard in Polyspace Access (Polyspace Access).

You can also generate reports that show the PASS or FAIL status using the templates SoftwareQualityObjectives_Summary and SoftwareQualityObjectives. See Bug Finder and Code Prover report (-report-template).

Customize SQO Levels

To customize SQOs in the Polyspace Access web interface, see Customize Software Quality Objectives (Polyspace Access).