Software QA is the process of analyzing and checking specific attributes or properties of a software product. Typically a QA team identifies issues that software developers work to fix and correct. Software QA processes are defined and described by standards such as DO-178, IEC 61508, and ISO 26262.
Software QA engineers check the software for a variety of potential defects and errors using processes such as validating that the software performs as specified and operates in a robust manner. In critical embedded software applications, the software must perform in a robust manner and be free of run-time errors. If software QA is not performed, run-time errors can manifest in production and cause undesirable behavior. Software QA processes use tools such as static code analysis to identify where the software might fail and to prove that the software is robust.
You can use static code analysis tools for the following tasks:
For details, see Polyspace® products
See also: Static analysis with Polyspace products; verification, validation, and test; embedded systems; abstract interpretation; code review; cyclomatic complexity; formal methods; software metrics; software QA; software quality objectives; source code analysis; static code analysis