Shaping the Future of Software Testing: Vector Software

The Silicon Review

“Vector Software is headquartered in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, USA with offices worldwide and a world-class team of support and technology partners.”

Founded in 1990, the original focus of Vector Software was consulting engagements for the development of embedded software. Many of these consulting engagements required low-level software testing which was a tedious and time consuming activity. The experience with low-level testing, led to the idea for an automation product that became VectorCAST^®. Over the last 20+ years Vector Software has developed a worldwide customer base of Fortune 500 customers in a diverse set of industries including: avionics, automotive, medical device, railway, industrial control, and finance.

Vector Software’s VectorCAST test automation platform provides the most comprehensive and cost-effective approach to test automation for all flavors of testing, from unit testing through system testing. Software development organizations that need to solve complex quality problems depend on VectorCAST for software test automation. Unlike manual or semi-automated processes, VectorCAST products consistently deliver manageable and repeatable testing outcomes enabling organizations to improve productivity, reduce risk, and maximize ROI. Organizations that develop software for mission and safety-critical applications rely on VectorCAST.

“We are well-positioned for organizations that are doing Agile and Test-Driven Development as well as Embedded DevOps. Our goal is to help these teams set up efficient, collaborative, repeatable processes for Continuous Test and Delivery and Parallel Testing. We also help organizations visualize, reduce and manage software technical debt and assess risk areas by providing actionable code quality metrics of their software development environment,” says John J. Paliotta, Co-founder and CTO.

The company offers the most comprehensive solution that enables organizations to solve complex quality problems and release their products faster without sacrificing quality. It does this by leveraging its deep domain expertise in embedded software combined with continuous enhancement to the technology built into our products.

Vector Software’s Product Offering
Vector Software’s product focus is on time-to market, efficiency, and software quality. Software testing can be a tedious and labor-intensive process. Vector Software’s goal is to provide the easiest to use test automation products, by reducing the workload for individual developers and allowing team members to easily collaborate.

VectorCAST is flexible and easily integrated into existing development methodologies including waterfall, agile, and test driven development. It supports the following:

Unit, Integration, and System Test Automation.
Code Coverage Analysis to measure testing completeness.
Requirements Traceability to map requirements to tests.
Push button Test Execution on any embedded target.
Coding Standards Enforcement, including MISRA.
Agile and Test Driven Development (TDD) methodologies.
Code Quality Metrics such as: complexity, testing completeness, comment density.

Vector Software’s Services Offering
From product implementation, training, and consulting to premier technical support, Vector Software offers services needed to ensure that the customer’s investment in VectorCAST produces the highest return on investment possible.
Additionally, it provides baseline testing services and code health check metrics that allow customers to prioritize their quality improvement efforts.

Client Base
The company’s customers in regulated industries who have certification mandates are:

Aerospace/Defense – DO178B/C
Automotive – ISO26262, MISRA
Industrial Controls – IEC 61508
Medical – FDA, IEC 62304
Railway – CENELEC

For Vector Software, growing the Business-Critical market is secondary to the above. The sector that the company would like to highlight is Automotive as it’s one of the fastest growing industries. Vector Software’s largest clients (by revenue) include Rockwell Collins, Honeywell, Visteon, and Lockheed Martin.

Clients Speak
“Key to our decision was Vector Software’s certification of VectorCAST for developing safety related software and its ability to integrate easily within the Dräger Safety development environment.” – Don DeLauder, Director, Research and Development at Dräger

“Vector Software’s VectorCAST embedded software testing platform was identified as the ideal solution for developing critical software in compliance with the IEC 61508 standard.” – Dr. Stefan Kaneff, Managing Director at EUROS Embedded
Systems

“VectorCAST is the premier dynamic software analysis tool for embedded applications. We are very pleased that our partner, Vector Software, is adding enhanced testing support for IAR Embedded Workbench.” – Mats Ullström, Product Director at IAR Systems

Global Footprint
Vector’s fastest growth has been in EMEA with automotive software suppliers, while the US remains steady in Avionics, Aerospace and Defense. Recent expansion in Asia with a new office in Japan, the third largest national economy in the world, enables the company to offer superior support to automotive and other industries that are at the forefront of technological development.

Plans for the Days Ahead
Vector Software’s present focus areas remain in primary industries such as:

Avionics, Aerospace and Defense
Automotive
Medical Devices
Railway
Industrial Controls
Business-Critical Applications

However, the company will be prioritizing market share in the Automotive Industry. Its future focus areas include IoT and software security.

Knowing the Key Executives

John J. Paliotta, Co-founder and CTO – John received his AB in Math from Boston College in 1983. In 1994, he and William McCaffrey built the first VectorCAST® product: VectorCAST/Ada, which was initially sold to customers building Avionics, Military and Space applications. As Chief Technology Officer, he directs all Engineering and QA activities, and manages the VectorCAST technical road map.

William K. McCaffrey, Co-founder and COO – William co-founded Vector Software. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Managerial Economics from Rhode Island College and focused his career on embedded software engineering. McCaffrey teamed with John Paliotta in 1994 to develop the initial VectorCAST® test automation product, which remains as Vector Software’s flagship product. As Chief Operating Officer, he directs the day to day sales, marketing, and business development activities at Vector Software and has over 30 years of experience in software development, specializing in safety-critical embedded systems.