A case study on software quality gating in the semicon industry
At one of Europe’s largest semicon solution providers, software issues were frequently discovered after being released into the field. Solving them early in the development process became a top priority for management. The customer was looking for a partner to help establish a feedback loop in quality gating for critical software. Due to the size and complexity of the organization an optimal tuning of processes, tooling and technologies was required, fit to deal with a demanding environment in which time to market is a key success factor.
Based on earlier software quality-related projects and several high-profile references in quality gating TIOBE was selected as strategic partner. With years of experience in measuring and improving code quality, TIOBE felt confident to take on this strategic responsibility, also building on its capabilities to tailor solutions to the exact needs of the customer.
The Delta Works are crucial in keeping water out of the Netherlands, just like quality gates are crucial in keeping bugs out!
The first priority was to define a company-wide coding standard and introduce a mechanism to trace violations immediately. Working closely together with our customer, this standard was successfully established. By learning from field defects, the standard was enhanced continuously. TIOBE introduced an automated feedback gate process before delivery, using TIOBE’s TiCS Framework. Where issues arise, TIOBE takes the responsibility to determine if software quality is sufficient to move ahead or if improvements are required to guarantee successful market introduction. As a member of various quality boards at this customer, TIOBE has become a trusted strategic partner and on many occasions provided crucial advice with a very positive impact.
The feedback loops in quality gates have been in place now for many years and greatly contribute to a smoother process of bringing new products to market. We take pride in the fact that the partnership with TIOBE has been extended to a broader range of software quality challenges.
With 20 years of experience and expertise in measuring and improving software quality in high-tech environments, the Netherlands based TIOBE leads the way to software quality improvements with a balanced approach, ensuring the timely delivery of new features and in parallel improving code quality. To achieve this, TIOBE combines the TiCS framework, fit to be tailored to the specific customer needs, with in-depth code quality expertise, allowing sustainable code quality improvements. In 2022 TIOBE became a trusted evaluation body for TÜV’s successful certification scheme “Trusted Product Maintainability”.