Introducing MISRA C: 2012

Yesterday, the Motor Industry Software Reliability Association (MISRA) announced the availability of MISRA C: 2012, an important update to the software development standard for the C programming language. Beyond providing support for the C99 version of C, the improvements also aim to reduce the cost and complexity required to achieve compliance.

VDC’s View

MISRA adoption has spread far and wide since being introduced in the 1990s to provide guidelines for the development of embedded software in the European automotive industry. Since that time, the value proposition of a standard set of quality assurance coding rules has resonated far beyond safety-critical applications. The MISRA standards are now often used by developers as a collection of best practices for coding across a range of industries which may not be subject to specific certifications. 

VDC’s ongoing review of the engineering community continues to show more and more projects are being developed to some level of compliance with MISRA guidelines. Findings from our most recent Software and System Development Survey were gathered earlier this month. The results show 30% of engineers’ current projects are either fully MISRA C compliant or adhere to a subset of these rules (partially compliant). Full or partial MISRA C++ compliance was cited for 27% of current projects.

Given the widespread adoption of these process guidelines across multiple regions and vertical markets, you can expect the automated test and verification solution provider community to respond rapidly to the MISRA C: 2012 update.

Some, in fact, have already responded. LDRA, one of leading suppliers of automated test and verification tools, announced availability of compliance tools for MISRA C: 2012 on the same day as the standard’s release. Expect more suppliers to follow suit.