An extensible collaborative framework for monitoring software quality in critical systems

Abstract

[EN] Context: Current practices on software quality monitoring for critical software systems development rely on the manual integration of the information provided by a number of independent commercial tools for code analysis; some external tools for code analysis are mandatory in some critical software projects that must comply with specific norms. However, there are no approaches to providing an integrated view over the analysis results of independent external tools into a unified software quality framework.

Objective: This paper presents the design and development of ESQUF (Enhanced Software Quality Monitoring Framework) suitable for critical software systems. It provides the above enriched quality results presentation derived not only from multiple external tools but from the local analysis functions of the framework.

Method: An analysis of the norms and standards that apply to critical software systems is provided. The detailed and modular design of ESQUF adjusts to the integration requirements for external tools. UML is used for designing the framework, and Java is used to provide the detailed design. The framework is validated with a prototype implementation that integrates two different external tools and their respective quality results over a real software project source code.

Results: The integration of results files and data from external tools as well as from internal analysis functions is enabled. The analysis of critical software projects is made posible yielding a collaborative space where verification engineers share information about code analysis activities of specific projects; and single presentation space with rich static and dynamic analysis information of software projects that comply with the required development norms.