Fault locator and weighting system

Detailed software analysis requires a manageable and exhaustive problem solving technique. An approach, the fault locator and weighting system (FLAWS), is described. FLAWS is coupled with a software tool, the data structure analysis system (DSAS), to facilitate techniques for detailed software analysis. DSAS reads the target system code from source files and builds an exhaustive database of the target code, making detailed analysis of large systems manageable. The commands of a target language have been translated to a compatible graphical representation. Safety critical portions of a 200 KSLOC program have been diagrammed using these graphical elements. The resulting diagrams are schematics of the system logic. These schematics tie all identified inputs to their associated outputs, including all coding errors. The FLAWS process and database permit exhaustive connectivity analysis of new target system code. FLAWS uses conventional fault tree analysis (FTA) symbolism and is generally applicable to large software systems