Program Analysis Tools in Software Engineering

Software engineering is a term in which we study about the development process of the software. This involves developing software that meets the industry standards and the requirements provided. This involves many tasks, from gathering the resources, designing, testing, and deploying the software product to maintaining the launched product.

This involves stages such as:

• Requirement gathering & Analysis: The client gives the designer the required essential components. They give the designers a document containing a detailed description of the specific requirements. The designer then thoroughly examines the document and combines all of the fundamental requirements needed to create the program/application.

• Design: In this phase, the designer actually starts working on the given software application. The developer starts designing the software as per the requirements given by the client; this is the most crucial phase in the life cycle because every step here must be taken with a lot of care and then to proceed to the next step. The most important factor which makes the product presentable is the design of that product.

•  Developing: After finalizing a proper design, the development phase starts in the life cycle, where coding and methods are implemented into the software application. The development of the software product is done according to the design specifications received from the client.

• Testing: In this phase, the developed product is sent to the testing process, where the developed code is tested for errors, if any, and debugged. This is one of the essential phases because this takes care of the software product which is being developed; the main aim in developing the product is to make it user-friendly and error resistant, and accessible.

• Deployment: This phase comes after the testing and correction of errors; here, the product is deployed into the production area. Where the software minor changes such as reconducting the tests, installation, and changing the software are done.

• Maintenance: This is the final stage in the Software Development Life Cycle, where the deployed final product is then maintained so that any future errors can be monitored. Fixing bugs, new and improved software updates, and fixing the patches in the previous version are done.

Program Analysis Tools in Software Engineering

The Program Analysis Tool is a tool, which is an automated application where the input source code is improved for better performance. This tool provides the additional security to the source code, identify errors and bugs, and improve the quality of the code. The software programs that are being developed by the usage of this tool are better in all aspects and provide the best user experience.

There are two types of Program Analysis Tool:

1. StaticProgram Analysis Tool
2. DynamicProgram Analysis Tool

Static Program Analysis Tool

This classification of tool performs the analysis of the source code without even executing it. This means the Static Program Analysis Tool only analyses the basic overview of the code and then concludes based on the analytics done. This actually scans the code and then checks some properties that belong to the formatting of the code. Then this tool concludes what are the modifications that are to be done on the program to make it better and even more understandable which provides more functionality to the users.

The properties that are considered are:

1. The code is written according to the basic rules determined by the program. It considers the standards of the program.
2. Errors and other mistakes are checked and analysed.
3. It checks whether the syntax and semantics are proper or not.
4. The data types, declarations, and variables should be appropriate.

Every line is not checked with the help of the Static Program Analysis tool; only the overall structure and the formatting of the code or program are checked and verified; if there are any mistakes that are to be rectified, then it specifies the designer to rectify them. People often confuse this with a compiler because both tell the errors and mistakes in the program written. But the Static Program Analysis tool is an automated tool that only works on the structure of the program, not the detailed report on the errors that are raised.

Dynamic Program Analysis Tool

This tool is also used in Software engineering. Unlike the Static Program analysis tool, the Dynamic program Analysis tool works on the actual behaviour of the program that is entered. This checks for the functionality of the code and implements the code into the environment that is currently being used. It adds extra features and statements to the program and then executes the program.

After the execution of the code, this makes us see the actual behaviour of the code; this makes us develop a better understanding of how the program runs and the areas to develop to make the code run even better than it could be user appealing. Once the program is executed, this tool performs the analysis afterward and gives the reports that say about the structure of the program and the overall performance of the program.

The results produced by the Dynamic Tool are represented visually for better interpretation of the program's working and provide the report where further improvement is needed and polished. This helps in reducing the test cases of the program.