Vital Link: Software Must Step Up To Quality StandardsVital Link: Software Must Step Up To Quality Standards

Thanks to an artificial heart controlled by software, a man with an irreparably damaged heart survived 17 months past his prognosis. Although he recently died, his extended survival was the longest yet of 10 critically ill patients, two of whom are still living, who volunteered for Abiomed Inc.'s clinical trials.

"This fellow had a chance to see another wedding anniversary and see a grandchild born, visit with his friends, and go out on his boat fishing," says Walter Iwanicki, software design assurance manager at Abiomed, a developer of cardiac-assist technology. "It was a good quality of life, and we're expecting that for other people as well."

Whether it's artificial organs or automobiles, software is increasingly found in devices and machines that benefit people. Buggy enterprise resource planning software can bring a business down, but poor software quality in a consumer product can affect the quality of someone's life.

Software written in the C language is used to control Abiomed's AbioCor, an implantable, battery-powered heart. Some of the code is contained in the heart and communicates via a radio transmitter with software contained in a control console outside the body, providing data on beats per minute, blood flow, and battery status.

Abiomed uses software supplied by testing vendor Programming Research to review code early in the development cycle. "If it gets to the point where the software is almost done and ready to be put in the device and you find something wrong, it then costs you in the vicinity of 100 times what it would have if you found that defect early," Iwanicki says.

At Ford Motor Co., software engineer Jim Weinfurther uses Programming Research's tools to test whether the software in subcomponents provided by suppliers for features such as keyless entry or automated internal lights meets a new set of quality standards set by the Motor Industry Software Reliability Association.

Software quality grows in importance each year for the auto industry as auto companies pile on features related to comfort and safety, Weinfurther explains. And increasingly, the mechanically oriented auto industry has had to learn how to write and use software, which controls vehicle features more cheaply than mechanical systems.

Ford is a founding member of the Motor Industry Software Reliability Association, yet the auto industry is in the early stages of adopting the standards. Weinfurther uses the association's guidelines for his division, which builds body modules such as door-locking mechanisms and windshield wipers. As the industry grows, pressure will mount for other divisions to adopt the association's standards.

Software problems can cost the industry enormous amounts in vehicle recalls, but the implications can be more onerous, Weinfurther says. "If we ever have an issue come up where software [in vehicles] hurts somebody, the legal implications seem to be rather big."

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Illustration by Felix Sockwell