Validation Services
Why do I need source code validation?
Source code validation provides the confidence and peace of mind that the materials and source code that are deposited into escrow, can produce the software that the end user expects, should a release event occur. The validation assures the value of the escrow agreement prior to a release event. Intellect has selected SQS, Europe’s largest independent provider of software testing and quality management services, as its partner to provide an independent and trusted source code validation service.
The benefits of validation, for the software user
- Ensures that the escrow materials are present and will be usable in the case of a release event
- Documents which third party software, libraries and tools are required in addition to the source code
- Confirms exactly what is contained within escrow and the skills that would be required to use the materials
The benefits of validation, for the software vendor
- Provides your software users assurance in your escrow agreements
- Supports the software sales process
- Improves software maintainability and validates license compliance of code reuse
How does source code validation work?
Intellect and SQS provide a number of source code validation solutions to address the level of business risk appropriate for your software and circumstances. Each level undertakes increasing numbers of validation activities from verifying that the escrow contents are readable and virus free, through to building the end user software and onwards to identifying what open source licenses are used in the source code.
Escrow validation service levels
There are a variety of service levels available to meet your validation needs. The work is carried out at different locations including the premises of the software owner, the end user and within SQS’s secure environment. At all times the integrity of the escrow agreement is maintained. The diagram below depicts the different service levels available:
The table below provides further detail of the deliverables associated with each level of service:
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Bronze
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Entry-level validation to ensure that the materials deposited in escrow:
- Are readable
- Are virus free
- Are unencrypted or that encryption keys and passwords are correct
- Can be uncompressed if files are compressed
- Have instructions to compile the source files
- Contain valid source code
A report includes:
- A summary of the contents deposited in escrow
- The results for each area above
- A summary of the tools required to build the end user software
- Preliminary highlights of code quality and license usage in the source code
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Silver
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Bronze services plus services to observe and audit that the escrow materials can be built into the end product that the software user receives from the software owner. Performed at the software owner’s site. A report details:
- What applications and 3rd party tools are required to build the software. This allows the software end user to plan to acquire or secure these in the case of a release event
- What files are produced by the build process and how these compare to the software the user receives
- The process required to install a working version of the application
- The results of a high level application smoke test specified by the software user and performed by SQS
- Additional analysis of license compliance
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Gold
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Silver services plus services to replicate the build process in an independent and secure SQS-hosted environment and to install a working version of the application in either the SQS environment or at the software end user’s site. In addition the environment used to build and install the application can be retained and deposited in escrow. A report details:
- Any differences noted in the build process in the independent environment vs. at the software owner
- The process required to install a working version of the applications
- The results of the User Acceptance Tests performed by the software end user and SQS
- Additional analysis of source code quality for code maintainability, security and performance
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Platinum
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Gold services plus enhancement services provided by SQS to further analyse the materials deposited in escrow:
- License Compliance Management (LCM) analysis
- Determine what open source and other code re-use occurs in the materials deposited and the licenses used by this code
- Validate IP ownership warranties
- Ensure that code complies with the Open Source policy and license obligations
- Code Quality Management (CQM) analysis
- Undertake static code quality analysis to validate the code against SQS's proprietary coding standards database
- Code maintainability & sustainability
- Security
- Performance
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Validation Services 
