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What are different kinds of static analysis testing tools?

ashish — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 20:06:34 +0000

The effectiveness of a software testing methodology is obviously affected by the effectiveness of the tools that it uses. This holds true for all types of software testing methodologies. Better tools provide a better handling of the testing methodology and also saves the time of the tester and his/her efforts. This article is devoted to a discussion about the tools that are deployed for static program analysis. For the purpose of static program analysis, several tools have been devised based on some criteria about which we shall discuss one by one:
1. Historical: Earlier for static program analysis, only two tools were available:
(a) NuMega Code Review: This tool has now been incorporated in to the Micro Focus Dev Partner Suite.
(b) Lint: This tool was the only original static code analyzer for the C language.
2. Tools supporting multiple languages:
(a) Black duck suite: This tool analyzes the composition of the binary files and source code of the software program. It is used for finding the reusable code from the whole program and manages the third party approval and open sources, check for the security vulnerabilities and associated legal obligations.
(b) Axivion Bauhaus suite: This tool supports C, C++, C#, Ada and Java etc. it analyses the interface, architecture and clones of the software program.
(c) Bug scout: This tool proves effective in checking out the security issues in the web applications created by java, ASP, C#, PHP etc.
(d) ChecKing: Tt is something more than a tool i.e., it is an integrated software quality portal and is deployed for the management of the quality issues at all the phases of the software development life cycle. It is comprised of static code analyzers for the languages: JSP, javascript, java, HTML, .NET, SQL, C, C++, JCL, XML etc.
(e) CAST application intelligence platform: This is the most detailed and specified tool developed for the measurement of the software productivity as well as the quality. There are around 30 plus languages supported by this tool which includes C, C++, .NET, Java, SAP, and Oracle etc.
(f) Coverity static analysis: This tool identifies the defects and potential security vulnerabilities in the applications developed using C#, C, C++ etc. it analysis the dynamic code and architecture of the program.
(g) Code rocket: This tool tests the flowchart design, pseudo code and documentation for the applications written in C, C++, C# and Java etc.
(h) DMS software re- engineering tool kit: This is the tool supporting custom analysis for the languages in C, C++, C#, Cobol, visual basic and many more languages. It is also suitable for dead code analysis, style checking and clone analysis.
(i) Dev partner code review: This tool is suitable for the bug pattern detection and static metrics for the applications developed in languages C, C++, C, COBOL, java, PHP etc. It has got customized parsers through which the regular expressions and rule sets can be extended.
(j) Compuware dev enterprise: This tool helps in analyzing the application using JCL, CICS, IMS, and COBOL etc.
(k) Gramma tech code sonar: This is the simplest tool of all and analyzes C++ and C.
(l) HP fortify source code analyzer: This is another tool in the queue of the tools that help identify the potential security vulnerabilities of a software developed in languages like Java, JSP, ASP. NET, PHP, VBscript, SQL, Python, and COBOL etc.
(m) Imagix 4D: This is a tool developed for the identification of the issues related to the task interaction and concurrency in the embedded software systems that have been developed using C, C++ or java etc.
(n) Intel: Developed by the Intel corporation, it has all the static security analysis features that support languages Fortran, C, C++ etc.

Software Verification and Analysis	Static Analysis of Software	Software Testing and Analysis

XPlanner – A tool for Scrum – Some reviews

ashish — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 19:04:48 +0000

Xplanner is a tool used for Scrum purposes, and is being used by a number of teams all over the world. From the project site (link)

XPlanner is a project planning and tracking tool for eXtreme Programming (XP) teams. If you are not familiar with XP software development practices, the links page contains pointers to relevant resources. To summarize the XP planning process, the customers pick the features to be added (user stories) to each development iteration (typically, one to three weeks in duration). The developers estimate the effort to complete the stories either at the story level or by decomposing the story into tasks and estimating those. Information about team development velocity from the previous iteration is used to estimate if the team can complete the stories proposed by the customer. If the team appears to be overcommitted, the set of stories are renegotiated with the customer. The XPlanner tool was created to support this process and address issues experienced in a long-term real-life XP project.

Here are some reviews and comments about this tool from different locations, and should help you make a decision when you are evaluating tools to use:
Xplanner.org (link)
Scribd.com (link)
ohloh.net (link)
agile-tools.net (link)
Thinking in Extremes with Xplanner (link)
javaworld.com (link)
http://borisgloger.com (link)
issart.com (link)
vietnamesetestingboard.org (link)
Journey in Software (link)
XPlanner installation FAQ (link)

SpiraPlan – Agile Project Management System (one review, and some information from the company site)

ashish — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:11:18 +0000

I keep on looking out for tools that can be used for Scrum, and once in a while SpiraPlan would pop up. I did not review the tool myself, so cannot give my personal opinion, but did a lookout for the other reviews that are available on this tool (and there are not too many out there). Here goes:
1. From the company site (Inflectra) – Link to the company site.

At the initial stages of a project, the project manager will use SpiraPlan in conjunction with the business users to determine the initial high level scope of the project, the key features and requirements. Working with the technical team, the project manager can begin to develop a high level release schedule and assign initial priorities and work estimates to the different features.
Once the project is underway, the combined business and technical team work together to develop the iteration plan for the releases, break up the features into discrete stories and tasks and begin assigning the tasks to the individual iterations. During development as the team work to complete the various tasks and stories, the system will track changes in the actual effort to determine if the plan needs to be rebalanced to ensure on-time, on-budget delivery.

2. A great review at borisgloger.com (link)

The Planning Tab is where most of the daily work will be done in SpiraPlan. The Requirements option is the closer that you can get from Product Backlog. A big grid with tons of columns and multi-level requirements, luckily you can hide and show the columns you like, but this operation is slow and annoying. A big problem with the Requirement grid is the impossibility to sort it by any column, that means you can not have a view of a prioritized backlog anywhere in the tool. The requirements have a importance property alowing a scale of 1 to 4, begin 1 for Critical and 4 for Low and the best you can do is filter the grid to see only requirements with a specific importance.

3. A checklist of features at this site.

Scrum Tool: AgileBuddy (information along with reviews)

ashish — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 19:35:22 +0000

In the quest to find good tools for Scrum (and when doing Scrum for the first time with a new team), it can be a difficult experience just finding the tool that will give you the least tool-side problems while implementing Scrum. As a part of this, I keep on hunting for new tools that make the Scrum process slightly easier, and search for reviews that other people have written on the same subject. Here is some information from the company site (link) as well user reviews:
Agilebuddy is next generation Scrum project management software that lets you easily Create, Estimate, Plan and Track your software projects. Agilebuddy’s comprehensive set of Scrum tools help teams naturally transition from the traditional waterfall model to Agile software development. Read more about the feature set at this link.

Read more from the following posts:
Scrum and TDD use for Creating Agilebuddy (link)
Borisgloger.com (link)
userstories.com (link)

For self-help, look at the following videos on Youtube (link)

Scrum Tool – ScrumDesk

ashish — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 06:56:39 +0000

Even though there are some people who claim that you can run a Scrum development through using a simple tool such as Excel, people do realize the need to have a tool that allows creation and maintenance of a Product Backlog, a Sprint Backlog, as well as tracking down the actual efforts and task completion, and preparation of the reports such as Burn Down reports, and so on.
In the past, this blog has shown some Scrum tools as well as reviews of others, and here is one more tool, called “ScrumDesk” (website). From the site, here are some features:
Projects
Teams
Stories board, story cards
Kanban (task board), Treemap
Planning sprints and releases
Planning Poker
Retrospective
Tracking progress
Collaboration
Integration
Documents with PDF support

Here are some reviews from other sites / articles of this tool:
1. Review at borisloger.com (link)

Once you have your backlog in place, estimated and prioritaized, it’s time to plan your sprints. To create a sprint you just need to define a name a start date and end date. At the planning feature you can access all story cards from your backlog not assinged to a sprint and just drag them and drop in the new sprint area. Very quickly , very visual way, it works fine. Once you have define your Selected Product Backlog for the sprint, it’s now a good time to create your task, you could have created it anytime before that, but it makes more sense to worry about the tasks on this moment of the sprint.

2. Review of ScrumDesk at brighthub.com (link)

The software intends to appeal to a more intuitive approach to project management. ScrumDesk features a special academic and non-profit program, where educational institutions and nonprofits can use the program free for up to 20 users, and for a discount on licensing for over 20 users.

3. Review at freedownloadmanager.com (link)

ScrumDesk provide at any time easy access to collaboration tools including messaging, internet calls, emails, web pages and bug tracking systems. ScrumDesk also support LDAP for easy user management.

4. Review at userstories.com (link)

Export stories, tasks and progres to Microsoft Excel. Call or mail to colleague by one click. Export retrospective ideas to SharePoint so your management can take an action. Easy send status to product owners by email. Data stored in database can be directly accessed by word processor or reporting services.
Direct access to your bug tracking page and project home page. Drag link or text to a sprint and story is created.

5. Review at softsea.com (link)

Everyone can easily identify status of the project using reports that displays typically used SCRUM metrics such as a burndown chart, release metrics, parking lot and so on.
ScrumDesk provide at any time easy access to collaboration tools including messaging, internet calls, emails, web pages and bug tracking systems. ScrumDesk also support LDAP for easy user management.

6. Review at vicman.net (link)

ScrumDesk provides intuitive view on stories (tasks) using index card view and enable project management collaboration.
ScrumDesk is not only for project managers. ScrumDesk connects project teams, team members with customers and management.