How Selex ES Ensures Quality in Manual and Automatic Programming
Selex ES, part of the Finmeccanica Group, is a leader in electronic and information technologies in the aerospace and defense industry. Their products include navigation and communication systems.
Selex needs to have reliable code in their systems. And they achieve this with Helix QAC for C and C++.
Helix QAC Helps Selex...
Improve Code Quality
Reduce Development Times
Add Efficiency to Their Workflows
"Helix QAC for C and C++ is widely adopted by our development teams and proven to be highly effective."
Why Selex Needs Reliable Code
Selex develops systems for the aerospace and defense industry, where quality is critical. Their code must be reliable.
Using a coding standard is the key to reliable code. Selex chose to implement a sub-set of MISRA® rules, with some company specific extensions. Although MISRA was designed for the automotive industry, its rule-set makes it ideal for aerospace and defense.
Selex began looking for a tool that could:
- Identify defects and dangerous language usage.
- Ensure MISRA compliance.
- Minimize false positives.
- Enforce style (e.g., naming conventions and physical layout).
- Increase visibility through "phantom inspections".
- Help developers adopt best practices.
- Report on metrics of code quality.
They found it with Helix QAC.
Consistent, Reliable Code With Helix QAC
Helix QAC helps Selex deliver consistent, reliable code faster. They no longer rely on manual code reviews — or the knowledge and ability of reviewers.
The quality of their code has improved dramatically. And dynamic testing is now faster and easier, since the code is a higher quality to begin with.
Selex began using Helix QAC on their handwritten code in C. They've expanded Helix QAC to automatic programming in C++, too.
Automatic Programming Complies, Too
One of Selex ES’s key strategic initiatives has been to increase the adoption of Model-Driven Design (MDD), based on IBM Rational Rhapsody. As part of this, they wanted to reuse auto-generated code across different projects.
At first, they did manual code inspections to verify the quality of auto-generated code. But manual code inspections were time-consuming, inconsistent, and resource-intensive.
Adding Helix QAC helped them ensure consistent quality for auto-generated code, too.
“The rollout of Rhapsody and auto-generated code was a critical, strategic initiative for Selex ES. Helix QAC delivered an effective way to verify the quality of auto-generated code.”
—Ian Anderson, Head of Software Engineering at Selex ES
How It Works
Selex creates the model in Rhapsody. With the integration, they can run an analysis within Rhapsody. This creates a Helix QAC project with the generated C++ files. Helix QAC automatically launches and loads the project for analysis. The developer can then choose which files to analyze.
Selex gets the same in-depth diagnostics for their auto-generated C++ code as they do for their manual C code.
Faster Development. Reliable Code.
By using Helix QAC, Selex:
- Accelerates development times.
- Ensures consistent, reliable code.
- Complies with coding standards.
Improve Your Code With Helix QAC
See for yourself how Helix QAC will improve the quality and reliability of your code.