Case Study: Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory achieves enhanced software reliability and saves 900 person-hours with Rogue Wave Software (Klocwork Insight)

Enhancing software reliability and developer productivity while building the next generation of human prosthetics

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory was tasked with developing the embedded software for DARPA’s RP2009 Revolutionizing Prosthetics program, a safety-critical, real-time system that translates neural signals into limb motion and provides sensory feedback. Facing a tight schedule, FDA guidance favoring static analysis, and the need to maximize developer productivity and software quality, the team adopted Rogue Wave Software’s Klocwork Insight static-analysis solution.

Rogue Wave Software integrated Klocwork Insight into the team’s CruiseControl continuous-integration pipeline to run automated analyses on every check-in and deliver build-level reports. Over five months the tool identified 225 defects (83 critical) with a 0.5% false-positive rate, saved an estimated 900 person-hours for a four-developer team, delivered >100% ROI for the project, and helped eliminate hard-to-test issues (bounds violations, uninitialized data, NULL-pointer and concurrency errors) and potential security vulnerabilities.

Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory

Justin Thomas

Software Team Lead, APL C&C