SCQAM: a scalable structured code quality assessment method for industrial software

Siemens, Corporate Technology, Development Center, Asia Australia (CT DC AA) has been developing and maintaining several software projects for the Industry, Energy, Healthcare, and Infrastructure & Cities sectors of Siemens. The critical nature of these projects necessitates a high level of software code quality. As part of the code quality program at CT DC AA the strategy is to have a scalable method towards identification of issues affecting code quality of projects across the organization. Traditionally, code quality experts in Siemens used EMISQ method to assess code quality. EMISQ requires about three person months (two experts for six weeks) for 50-100 kLoC, making it effort intensive and time consuming. Thus, scaling this assessment method to include the hundreds of projects in CT DC AA poses many challenges. To address this, we have developed a lightweight assessment method called SCQAM (Structured Code Quality Assessment Method). SCQAM is an expert-based method wherein manual assessment of code quality by experts is directed by the systematic application of code analysis tools. In this paper, we describe the SCQAM method, experiences in applying it to projects in CT DC AA, challenges faced and initiatives taken to enable fixing of systemic issues reported by assessments. The insights from our SCQAM experience can provide useful pointers to other organizations and practitioners interested in assessment and improvement of software code quality.