Benefits of Static Analysis Testing

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Benefits of Static Analysis Testing

• www.qa-systems.com

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Our Mission and Focus

• Our mission..
• is to improve our customers software health.
• Our focus is to
• develop software tools to assess, support and
  monitor the health (quality) of software
  applications developed by our customers
• provide automated support of aspects of software
  quality processes such as the SEI Capability
  Maturity Model (CMM)

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What is Static Analysis

• Static analysis is the process of examining
  source code prior to compilation (and execution)
• Static analysis can diagnose for
• Quality aspects such as maintainability,
  reliability, understandability and complexity
• Testing issues
• Coding standard compliance issues
• Best programming practices and unsafe programming
  constructs and coding defects

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What is Static Testing

• Static testing is using static analysis as part
  of the test trajectory
• Static and Dynamic testing are supplementary
  static analysis does not replace dynamic testing
  but can significantly reduce dynamic testing
  effort
• Static testing achieves 100 statement coverage
• Including explicit static analysis in test
  coverage
• Improves overall test quality and test planning
• Results in shorter dynamic testing time
• Allows stronger focus testing on complex and
  crucial modules

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Defect Removal Cost

• Cost of defect removal rises
• exponentially for defects found
• later in the development cycle

Dynamic Testing
Static Testing
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Time (cost) required for ASA is low
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Impact (benefit) of ASA is high
Static Analysis may reduce defects by a factor of
6!

• Source Capers Jones, Software Productivity
  Group, Inc.

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Software Manager Findings on Static Analysis

• We proved the tight relationship between static
  analysis and the reduction of support efforts on
  released software products.
• Dr. Thomas Liedtke and Dr. Christian
  EbertAlcatel AG in Stuttgart, GermanyOn the
  Benefits of Reinforcing Code Inspection
  Activities, EuroStar 1995

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Analyst Findings on Static Analysis

• 60 of the software faults that were found in
  released software products could have been
  detected by means of static analysis
• Bloor Research Ltd., UK CAST Tools report of 1996

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Researcher Findings on Static Analysis

• On average, 40 of the faults that could be found
  through static analysis will eventually become a
  defect in the field.
• Professor Dr. Les Hatton,
• University of Kent

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• Early life cycle programming error detection
  saves testing time by detecting programming risks
  prior to compiling source code
• Significantly reduces review effort by automating
  a major portion of the inspection process -
  direct support of coding standards, usage of best
  programming practices
• Assesses the quality of the software delivered by
  software development suppliers
• Demonstrates to customers the quality of the
  software delivered (for software development
  organizations)
• Assesses the quality of an existing code base in
  order, for example, to establish maintenance
  budgets or for establishing in-sourcing or
  outsourcing contracts

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• Automatic coding standards enforcement Automatic
  standards enforcement reduces manual review
  effort and improves programming practices.
• ISO9126 conforming objective software quality
  measurement Objective measurement in terms of
  high level management relevant quality
  attributes
• Flags complex code constructs Identifies these
  constructs and gives you guidelines for
  improvement
• Descriptive pattern based reporting Empower best
  practices and improve software quality and
  productivity by reporting on software quality
  issues using descriptive Java patterns.
• Leading IDE Integrations QStudio for Java is
  seamlessly integrated with leading IDEs
  (including JBuilder, JDeveloper, Visual Age and
  in the near future Eclipse, WebSphere Studio and
  NetBeans)
• Extensive platform support QStudio for Java is
  supported on the leading Java platforms
  Windows, Solaris and Linux, runs on JRE 1.2,
  1.3 and 1.4.