Reasoning Adds Software Quality Metrics Reports, Name Change to Automated Inspection Service; New Defect Density Analyses Help Development Executives Make Better Business Decisions.

Business/Technology Editors

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 1, 2001

Reasoning, Inc., the world's leading provider of automated software inspection services, today announced the availability of software defect metrics reports, a major new deliverable as part of its newly-renamed Illuma(SM) service (formerly known as InstantQA). Based on the company's extensive knowledgebase of defect-density information, the new reports provide a series of benchmarks to help technology companies improve software reliability and shorten time to market.

In addition to its existing defect data reports that identify the exact location of potential crash-causing and data-corrupting errors, Reasoning's defect metrics reports, created by measuring the software's defect density (the number of defects found by the Illuma service for every one thousand lines of source code), allow customers to:

-- Benchmark their software development efforts against industry averages to assist with goal setting and competitive positioning

-- Plot defect density distribution across an application to determine critical testing areas

-- Identify individual files with a particularly high defect level to support risk management decisions

Scott Trappe, president and CEO of Reasoning, said, "The software development industry is clamoring for information that will help them improve software reliability. With our Illuma automated inspection service, executives can have in-depth knowledge of their software's quality very early in the development cycle -- long before testing begins. Now, they can make decisions about training requirements, development team assignments, testing focus, even whether to change a release date, based on solid quantitative data instead of gut feeling."

Said Jim Johnson, chairman of The Standish Group, an analyst firm specializing in software development issues, "Many industries are able to utilize quality benchmark data for business decision-making. However, until now the software development industry has yet to have this type of data available. With Reasoning's new defect metrics data, technology companies can direct testing in appropriate areas, determine a more accurate release window, and make an educated trade-off between risk and quality."

About Illuma

Using advanced automated software inspection technology, highly skilled software quality specialists, and a proven methodology, Illuma finds defects missed by traditional testing. It pinpoints null pointer dereferences, memory leaks, out-of-bounds array accesses, uninitialized variables, and bad deallocations in C and C++ code and, because it does not rely on test cases, allows complete code coverage. Inspection is performed at the source-code level, so defects are found earlier in the software development cycle when repair is much less expensive. Both the defect data and metrics reports are generally delivered to the client within five business days.

About Reasoning

Reasoning, Inc., is a leading provider of automated software inspection services that enable major technology companies to dramatically reduce the time, effort, and cost required to produce reliable software. Major customers include Agilent, Alcatel, Halliburton, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, NASA, Nortel, Siemens, Tellabs, and Toshiba. The company is privately funded and has sales and service locations throughout North America and in Europe. Reasoning is headquartered at 700 East El Camino Real, Mountain View, California, 94040. Contact Reasoning at [phone] or at www.reasoning.com.

Note to Editors: Charts and graphs to illustrate the data available through the defect metrics reports are available on request.

Reasoning, Illuma, and the Reasoning logo are either trademarks and/or service marks of Reasoning, Inc. All other product or service names may be trademarks of the companies with which they are associated.