Mission Ready Software has a team of certified software reliability engineers to provide reliable software services such as software reliability assessments and software failure modes effects analyses. Since our company was founded 30 years ago, we have assessed the 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 major equipment industries.
Our founder, Ann Marie Neufelder, is the global software reliability leader. She literally wrote the book on software failure modes effects and authored the Common Defect Enumeration currently 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 the methods and models in it. Ann Marie trained a team of experienced professionals to conduct these essential services. Each is a certified software reliability engineer.
Our team is experienced in preparing these analyses as per the Data Item Descriptions in the Reliable Software Statement of Work as published on the DAU R&M CoP website.
Software FMEA
Mission Ready Software is the only organization that has almost one million software failure reports analyzed for failure mode and root cause, as well as a 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. Real 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 more than 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 of the failure modes that apply to virtually all software systems.
The analyst must understand the failure modes, root causes as well as the 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 as well as 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 the most common failure modes in history. We can also analyze 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 is relatively inexpensive and is a highly recommended first step. 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 simultaneously ignoring the technique that is behind most of the 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 had a severe effect on operation. Our approach works for both safety and mission-related hazards
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 while 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 really the only thing that can be done to improve the reliability is to keep testing and keep 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 know what distressed software organizations do (and don’t do) when developing software. We know what factors affect reliable software as well as the factors that 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 be used to predict as well as assess the effectiveness of the development practices. Our models predict defect density, defects that will escape testing, defects that will be 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.