Liverpool Data Research Associates (LDRA) is a provider of software analysis, test and requirements traceability tools for the Public and Private sectors and a pioneer in static and dynamic software analysis.

History

LDRA was founded in 1975 by Professor Michael Hennell

Michael Hennell

Professor Michael A. Hennell is a British computer scientist who has made leading contributions in the field of in software testing.Michael Hennell is Professor Emeritus of Mathematical Sciences, University of Liverpool in England....

 to commercialize a software test-bed created to perform quality assessments on the mathematical libraries on which his Nuclear physics

Nuclear physics

Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies the building blocks and interactions of atomic nuclei. The most commonly known applications of nuclear physics are nuclear power generation and nuclear weapons technology, but the research has provided application in many fields, including those...

 research at the University of Liverpool

University of Liverpool

The University of Liverpool is a teaching and research university in the city of Liverpool, England. It is a member of the Russell Group of large research-intensive universities and the N8 Group for research collaboration. Founded in 1881 , it is also one of the six original "red brick" civic...

 depended.

Products

LDRA Testbed is a proprietary software analysis tool providing static code analysis

Static code analysis

Static program analysis is the analysis of computer software that is performed without actually executing programs built from that software In most cases the analysis is performed on some version of the source code and in the other cases some form of the object code...

, and also provides code coverage

Code coverage

Code coverage is a measure used in software testing. It describes the degree to which the source code of a program has been tested. It is a form of testing that inspects the code directly and is therefore a form of white box testing....

 analysis, code, quality, and design reviews. It is a commercial implementation of the software test-bed created by Hennell as part of his university research. It was the first commercial product to include support for the Linear Code Sequence and Jump

Linear Code Sequence and Jump

Linear code sequence and jump is a software analysis method used to identify structural units in code under test. Its primary use is with dynamic software analysis to help answer the question "How much testing is enough?"...

 software analysis method, which resulted from the same research. It is used primarily where software is required to be reliable, rugged, and as error free as possible, such as in safety critical aerospace electronics (or Avionics

Avionics

Avionics are electronic systems used on aircraft, artificial satellites and spacecraft.Avionic systems include communications, navigation, the display and management of multiple systems and the hundreds of systems that are fitted to aircraft to meet individual roles...

). It has also been used in the detection and removal of security vulnerabilities . LDRA Testbed is a part of a tool suite from LDRA, including:

• TBrun - an automated unit testing tool
• TBreq - a requirements traceability tool
• TBmanager - extends TBreq
• TBevolve - supports software baseline management
• TBsafe - for DO-178B
  DO-178B
  DO-178B, Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification is a document dealing with the safety of software used in airborne systems....
  
   certification
• TBpublish - for publishing HTML indexes
• TBaudit - for Microsoft Word
  Microsoft Word
  Microsoft Word is a word processor designed by Microsoft. It was first released in 1983 under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platforms including IBM PCs running DOS , the Apple Macintosh , the AT&T Unix PC , Atari ST , SCO UNIX,...
  
   reports
• DO-178B
  DO-178B
  DO-178B, Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification is a document dealing with the safety of software used in airborne systems....
  
   Tool Qualification

Industry Standards

LDRA is a contributor to several industry standards, including DO-178C

DO-178C

DO-178C, Software Considerations in Airborne Systems and Equipment Certification is the title of an upcoming document published by RTCA, Incorporated, in a joint effort with EUROCAE...

, MISRA C

MISRA C

MISRA C is a software development standard for the C programming language developed by MISRA . Its aims are to facilitate code safety, portability and reliability in the context of embedded systems, specifically those systems programmed in ISO C...

and MISRA C++. Additionally, LDRA is an Industry Partner for the CERT C Secure Coding Standard produced by the Computer Emergency Response Team at Carnegie Mellon's Software Engineering Institute

Software Engineering Institute

The Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute is a federally funded research and development center headquartered on the campus of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. SEI also has offices in Arlington, Virginia, and Frankfurt, Germany. The SEI operates...

.