Software safety analysis & software reliability assessment
Experienced certified professionals can provide software safety analysis and reliability assessment.
Mission Ready Software has a team of certified software reliability engineers and certified software FMEA engineers who provide software reliability assessment services , software failure modes effects analyses, and software safety analysis services. Since our company was founded 30 years ago, we have analyzed software safety, assessed software reliability and prepared effective software FMEAs at more than 200 engineering companies developing mission—and safety-critical systems in the vehicle, medical device, defense, energy, space, semiconductor, and significant equipment industries.
Our founder, Ann Marie Neufelder, is the global software reliability leader. She wrote the book on software failure modes effects and authored the Common Defect Enumeration, published on the Defense Acquisition University R&M Community of Practice website. She is also the chair of the IEEE 1633 Recommended Practices for Software Reliability and invented several of its methods and models. Ann Marie trained a team of experienced professionals to conduct these essential services. Each is a certified software reliability or certified software FMEA engineer.
Our team is experienced in preparing these analyses according to the Data Item Descriptions in the Reliable Software Statement of Work published on the DAU R&M CoP website.
Software FMEA services
Mission Ready Software is the only organization with almost one million software failure reports analyzed for failure mode, root cause, and Common Defect Enumeration. This data has been collected from the mission and safety-critical systems in the defense, space, automotive, medical, energy, and other industries. Actual data is what makes our software FMEA approach effective. Ann Marie Neufelder is the global leader in software failure modes effects analysis. We use the Requs AI Predict Software FMEA machine learning tool to generate an accurate list of failure modes applicable to your system. She has been conducting these for over 35 years and wrote the book on software FMEA.
The same software failure modes have and continue to affect every industry and system. Faulty functionality, faulty processing, faulty state management, faulty sequencing, faulty timing, faulty error handling, and faulty data are just a few failure modes that apply to virtually all software systems.
The analyst must understand the failure modes, root causes, mission, and environmental conditions. Software failures often occur because the software engineers writing the code didn’t understand or consider the entire mission profile. At Mission Ready Software, we know what failure modes can affect various application types and industries and the relative likelihood. We know how to tailor the software FMEA for your software and system for a greater return on investment. We can provide quick assessments that analyze history’s most common failure modes. We can also explore the software design, interfaces, and requirements for more coverage.
The software FMEA is often more effective if a defect root cause analysis is conducted beforehand. This relatively inexpensive first step is highly recommended. The defect RCA can also be used to make more cost-effective improvements to the software development process.
For example, if faulty state management is the most common failure mode, not only does that drive the software FMEA to state-related root causes, but it also is indicative that the state design is insufficient. Engineering organizations often try to fix processes that don’t need fixing while ignoring the technique behind most defects.
Our assessments have a proven track record. They are highly effective at finding software defects that would not have been identified in software testing but would have severely affected operations. Our approach works for both safety and mission-related hazards.
We used the Requs Software FMEA tool to generate the software FMEA.
Software Reliability Assessment
Mission Ready Software is globally recognized as the authority on software reliability assessment. That is because we invented most of the models currently used in the industry. Our models are recommended by IEEE 1633 Recommended Practices for Software Reliability.
Our software reliability prediction models are used early in development when there is still time to achieve reliable software without spending a fortune or delaying the schedule. Other software reliability models are used late in testing when the only thing that can be done to improve reliability is to keep testing and fixing defects.
We have the world’s largest database of software development factors correlated to actual reliability. We know what world-class software organizations do (and don’t do) when developing software. We also understand what distressed software organizations do (and don’t do) when developing software. We know what factors affect reliable software and what factors are overhyped. Every day spent on a development technique that doesn’t reduce defects is a day that could have been spent on a development technique that does. This database is how we developed our machine learning models that predict operational defect density.
Our software reliability assessment models can predict and assess the effectiveness of development practices. Our models predict defect density, defects that will escape testing, defects found in testing, staffing levels, optimal release frequency to keep the defect logs from piling up, software failure rate, software MTBF, reliability, and availability. We can also assess your software vendors.
We use the Requs AI Predict machine learning tool to generate the predictions.
Software Safety Analysis
We intented a method and tool to conduct a software safety analysis and a software failure modes effects analysis in one step. The root causes for software safety hazards and software mission hazards are the same. The FMEA can and is used to tag the root causes to both mission and safety hazards. We have experience with Mil-Std-882E, Joint Systems Services Engineering Handbook, and AOP-52.
We use the Requs AI Predict Software FMEA tool to generate the safety assessment.