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Category: Resources

By arrangement with Amazon.com; we are now able to offer books for sale through the My 2 Cents Bookstore page. So it is, that over this long holiday weekend, I’ve spent many hours wading through the full catalog of Amazon; looking for a selection of books that would be well suited to the readers of this site.  If I can’t grow the readership simply through my writings perhaps the holidays will inspire droves of christmas shoppers to seek us out when looking for gifts for their favorite ultra-geek. continue reading…

As I’ve said before, MC/DC analysis is the bane of Level-A development under DO-178B. It is not well understood, either by developers or by verification engineers. Automated analysis tools will perform the analysis, but that may not occur until verification has begun. Fixes at this stage are far less desirable than avoiding issues in the first place. So how do we ensure that MC/DC issues do not occur in the first place? continue reading…

There are many tools available to developers of high-integrity software to enhance productivity and code quality. Today I will look at some of them in brief. Future articles will explore some of them in more depth. continue reading…

Some software architects tend to think a lot about our place in the software world. In a recent conversation with a colleague, I found myself in agreement with his description of the clear separation between software engineer and software architect. His argument wasn’t that the two roles couldn’t be fulfilled by the same person, simply that they are separate disciplines. I fully agreed, yet as I thought about it, I grew somewhat uncomfortable with my own conviction about the extent of this separation. I felt a need to try to establish what the relationship is, and perhaps what it should be. continue reading…

I wanted to express my thanks to Todd, over at FAAConsultants.com. He placed this site on his resource page, and we’re beginning to see some referred traffic as a result.

While I have not worked directly with FAAConsultants, I have had several conversations with Todd, including a demonstration of their software product; and I believe that many firms who produce hardware or software that must comply with FAA regulations would benefit by its use. continue reading…

Most organizations today, and I would venture that all organizations involved in the production of high-integrity code use one or more development standards, in an attempt to improve the quality of the software produced. Among the common types of standards for development are Architecture Standards, Design Standards, and Coding Standards. Verification standards also exist, for the same reason. In this article, I will focus on coding standards, as that is where I have seen the bulk of issues. continue reading…

When I originally titled this article, I had no idea just how appropriate it would turn out to be.  Thanks to a series of events that has occurred over the past few weeks, this article has become a 3-time, self-referential do-over.  Self-fulfilling prophecy, or simply an application of Murphy’s law? continue reading…

I’ve read several articles and blog entries where experts argued over the semantics of “software construction” versus “software development”.  Personally, I see little value in the debate.  But I won’t let that stop me from contributing my 2 cents. continue reading…

Part I of this article described the various types of software architect. In this article we’ll describe the work they do, or should do, in a bit more detail. continue reading…

What does an architect do?  This surely won’t be the last time this question is asked on this forum.  It is an important question, and somewhat hard to pin down; especially when one considers the many titles of a Software Architect. There seems to be a general idea of what a software architect does, but many software managers don’t seem to believe the role is necessary, or even distinct: “Can’t we just have one of our senior developers do that?”  Sure you can; If you have a senior developer who possesses those skills. continue reading…