Vector Software
Testing Solutions for Embedded Applications

According to a latest edition of the World Quality Report—testing will consume more than 40 per¬cent of the average software development group’s budget by 2017. With so much money being spent on software testing, why is software quality not improving? We put this question to John Paliotta, Co-founder and Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Vector Software. “The key to improving software quality is to make tests intuitive to build, fast to execute, and easy to share. Our goal as a company is to build products for testing to be intuitive, fast and easy.”

The company’s flagship product VectorCAST, is a test collaboration platform that delivers consistent, manageable, and repeatable testing outcomes, enabling organizations to improve productivity, reduce risk, and maximize ROI. VectorCAST supports Ada, C and C++ programming languages and provides an infrastructure that helps customers build the highest quality software, on time and on budget. Paliotta is of the opinion that, “the problem with software is not the amount of time and money spent on testing, but the quality of testing.”

With two decades of experience helping customers improve quality, Vector Software has developed a good understanding of the best practices that drive quality, and they provide customers with consulting and mentoring to improve quality and reduce cost. This is especially helpful for customers that don’t have experience developing safety critical software. “For our customers that are new to regulated industries such as avionics, automotive or medical devices, we can help identify process deficiencies,” states Paliotta. For a recent automotive client, Vector Software performed an analysis of their development processes which identified risk areas, and then designed an improved workflow that closed those deficiencies. The solution not only provided a testing infrastructure that complies with the automotive standard ISO 26262, but also helped the client improve their software quality.

In another recent case, Vector Software engaged with a German defense company that had already built a completely automated test and simulation system for their application. The missing piece was a way to measure testing completeness. On engaging with Vector’s professional services group and implementing automated code coverage analysis, it was revealed that existing tests covered only 70 percent of the code base. “Using this information and the VectorCAST test products, the customer was able to add tests to validate the missing 30 percent (56k LOC) in about three months,” explains Paliotta.

The problem is not the amount of time and money spent on testing, but the quality of testing

One of the unique things about Vector Software is the interaction between their developers and customers. “A critical part of our success is close collaboration with our customers. Every member of my R&D team interacts with customers.” In order to understand customer needs, Paliotta spends significant time meeting with clients. “I come back from every trip energized about what we are doing after seeing the unique ways that our customers are getting value from our products," says the CTO.

Vector Software constantly reinvests in their core technology to enhance customer experience. Governed by a belief that software testing will witness a radical transformation in the years ahead, Vector Software plans on embracing this change to thrive in the industry. “We will continue to provide test automation products with a focus on making our tools incrementally better every day,” ends Paliotta.