Large-scale Deployment of Static Analysis Leads to Measurable Productivity and Quality Improvements

Defining iDEN Mobile Device’s Challenges

In 2005, Motorola took quality initiatives a step further by mandating a corporate goal to reduce — by three times — the number of external software failures in their devices. One way Motorola measured the rate of reduction in failures was to track the amount of time and rework needed to address these failures by support staff.

To achieve that goal, Motorola iDEN Mobile Devices had to overcome several specific challenges:

Ongoing Increases in Code Size and Complexity

With an exponential increase in the code used in handheld devices, it is essential for iDEN Mobile Devices to be able to define and create the world of seamless mobility. Games, Java applications, and more complex user applications increase the complexity of the software itself. Which requires iDEN developers to adapt to multiple protocols for each new platform that is introduced.

Integrating External Code

iDEN Mobile Devices has multiple suppliers who provide source code, libraries, and binaries to build their mobile devices. This requires iDEN developers to support third-party applications, multiple platforms, and multiple development languages, including Linux, Java, Windows, C/C++.

Time to Market Pressure

In the global market, organizations are competing to have faster, better, smarter, and cheaper devices. To meet these demands effectively while continuing to innovate creates added pressure on developers. What’s more, time to market is extremely important, especially in the quickly developing industrial nations.

Shrinking Development Cycles

The cycle times for these initiatives can vary depending on the complexity of the software and the size of the project. While creation of new platforms can take up to a few years, development of derivative products can be done in a matter of weeks.

Improve and Expand Quality Assurance Programs

iDEN Mobile Devices’ existing quality assurance programs were effective, but the costs associated with fixing defects discovered at that stage were significantly higher. The risk of defects “escaping” to the customer was also higher when defects were found later.

Measure Software Quality

An additional requirement was to be able to track defects between product releases. This would give the development teams the ability to measure the quality of their product releases.

How Klocwork Improved Productivity and Quality

To address these challenges, iDEN Mobile Devices searched for a solution that could help developers and software programmers find defects within the organization’s code. This involved iDEN looking at which tool suite had the most accurate and efficient findings, as defined by functionality and coverage type. It was also critical that the solution be able to easily integrate into the development environment — spanning multiple teams in multiple geographies.

Klocwork won over competing software quality assurance tools because of the following reasons:

• Proven success within other Motorola groups.
• The ability to report the most effective findings – as defined by functionality, the type of defects found, and demonstrated value.
• The ability to correctly identify known defects in validation process.
• The ability to simultaneously identify both software quality and software security issues.

All software engineers were trained on-site by Klocwork and Motorola trainers in both the tool and process changes. This expedited the learning curve by having hands-on lab exercises of the engineer’s environment and questions on usage and tools answered by knowledgeable resources.

After the initial success of using Klocwork, the deployment of the defect detection was expanded to iDEN’s remote development sites in Asia, Australia and Israel in early 2005. What’s more, Klocwork’s defect detection is currently used on all products developed by iDEN. This is to ensure that strict requirements for code inspections and shipping acceptance criteria are met prior to signoff for all products — including maintenance releases.

How Klocwork has Impacted iDEN Mobile Devices

The iDEN Mobile Devices software team implemented several process and tools in 2005 — the combination of which has led to significant cost reductions and quality improvements. Klocwork was a major contributor to achieving the quality results identified in this case study.

At the end of 2005 the iDEN Mobile Devices software community published the following quality benefits:

• 2X improvement in customer reported defects at alpha-beta.
• 3X improvement in Customer Reported Unique Defects (CRUD) — an external metric.
• 1.2X reduction in Non-traditional Software CoPQ.

These results earned the iDEN Mobile Devices group the highest achievement in quality performance award for 2005, the Motorola CEO Quality Award. The award was given for the significant and sustainable performance improvements that directly and positively affect customers as well as the bottom line.

By utilizing Klocwork early in the software development lifecycle, at the time the code is created and prior to any code inspection, potential software errors are more easily detected and the cost associated with fixing the errors is significantly reduced. The number of defects found at System Test was reduced by 2 fold in the first year that Klocwork’s tools were implemented.

Future Work with Klocwork

Motorola as a corporation has recognized the value of Klocwork’s static code analysis and has purchased an enterprise license agreement with the company, naming Klocwork a Motorola Preferred Supplier. Motorola is actively working to share best practices across development organizations through the use of multi-division teams.

“Klocwork was an essential part of the solution. Klocwork came onsite and helped with the entire implementation process. The relationship is a partnership - Klocwork understood the environment and challenges we were facing. If that didn’t happen, this initiative wouldn’t have been successful,” said Soili Lehrer, Motorola.

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