Quality

Distribution Guaranty for Code_Aster Libre

The License contains a clause stating that EDF does not guaranty the user against the eventual damage incurred by the software. This software is provided as is and free of charge. Each distributor can provide, under his responsibility and according to the market conditions, a complementary guaranty. This guaranty must be supported by qualification testing and user feedback from the network of users.

Quality certification for the EDF version

Quality chart: the development, the integration and the diffusion of Code_Aster verify the quality requirements of the ISO 9001 referential. The Administration manual defines the criteria for the approval of new evolutions in the code, as well as the processing of user feedback. A quality sheet comes with each version and a Quality check accompanies each semester’s sub-version.

Two advantages: the reference documentation (describing the implanted models and their limits), and the independent validation, (conformity of the software with its documentation, quality of results, certification of possibilities using non–regression tests). This validation is based on a network of internal users, and on the expertise of a dozen external organisms and benchmarks.

Versions: Code_Aster only has one source code. It is completed each year with 70.000 lines of code through 40 updates. Every six months, a Development sub-version is blocked. Every two years, it becomes the Exploitation version, completed by its documentation and its validation complements. Development partners can create new prototypes by overloading the source of a sub-version.

Platforms: The EDF intranet users exploit all the versions, either using mono or multiprocessor, on a centralised UNIX server (Bull Novascale), from Unix stations or PCs. Secured connexions are provided to external suppliers for services ordered by EDF. The environment is made so that the user can access the code, the user feedback sheets, the electronic documentation, the work log, and the configuration management workshop.