What is Hersteller Initiative Software (HIS)?
Initially established by renowned automotive manufacturers such as Audi, BMW Group, Porsche, and Volkswagen, the HIS Metrics were devised to establish a standardized framework for creating high-quality code that is easily maintainable within automotive systems. The Hersteller Initiative Software (HIS) has defined Source Code Metrics that provide recommended thresholds for essential code quality metrics, making them a valuable asset for efficient project and quality management.
Even today, the adoption of the HIS metric set remains widespread within the automotive industry. Several metrics from this set have been integrated into the ISO 26262 automotive functional safety (FuSa) standard (Section 6). Nevertheless, these guidelines encompass a comprehensive range of code quality and complexity metrics that have gained recognition across various domains, including embedded systems and enterprise software development. These metrics hold immense value in situations where ensuring exceptional quality and minimizing complexity are paramount.
HIS Metrics supported by QA–MISRA with threshold checks:
- COMF (comment density)
- PATH (number of paths)
- GOTO (number of jump statements)
- v(G) (cyclomatic complexity)
- CALLING (number of callers)
- CALLS (number of callees)
- PARAM (number of arguments)
- STMT (statements per function)
- LEVEL (call levels)
- RETURN (number of returns)
- VOCF Language Scope
- ap_cg_cycle number of recursive path
And the following HIS Metrics are supported by QA-MISRA without threshold checks:
- NOMV This metric counts the number of violations of the HIS Subset MISRA C 1.0.2.
The number of rule violations of supported and activated MISRA rules is shown by QA-MISRA. - NOMVPR This metric counts the number of violations of the HIS Subset MISRA C 1.0.2. per rule.
The number of rule violations of per supported and activated MISRA rules is shown by QA-MISRA
