Application Performance Improvement using CAST SQG formerly AIP.

??What is CAST Structural Quality Gate (SQG) formerly AIP ?

CAST SQG draws on CAST’s extensive experience in deep, semantic software analysis that maps every code element, data structure, and dependency inside multi-tier, multi-technology applications.

How CAST SQG works?

• Scans all application artifacts for all pieces created by GenAI or humans – all source code, data scripts, property files, etc.
• Analyses and models the inner workings of the entire application, across all layers, regardless of size and technology mix.
• Pinpoints ISO 5055 rule violations with MRI-like precision and ranks all structural flaws based on impact.
• Recommends how to remediate each structural flaw, and where to best start tackling technical debt.

??Typical use

• Structural Quality Gate: Ensuring structural integrity after integration stage and prior to production release.
• Outsourced Software Acceptance: Fact-based validation of third-party software integrity against contract standards.
• Pre-M&A Technical Due Diligence: Comprehensive, fact-based technical assessments of critical software assets.
• Compliance-Driven Software Assessment: In-depth evaluations against regulatory and industry standards.

??How CAST SQG can help in performance improvement plan?

CAST SQG/AIP enhances performance and analyzes code by providing deep insights into software structure, detecting inefficiencies, and helping teams optimize applications. It achieves this through static code analysis, architecture assessment, and performance indicators. Here’s how CAST AIP contributes to performance enhancement and code analysis-

Identifies Performance Bottlenecks

• CAST AIP scans source code, database queries, and application logic to detect potential performance issues.
• Highlights high-complexity methods, inefficient loops, unnecessary computations, and redundant processing.
• Identifies slow database queries, inefficient joins, and improper indexing.

Detects Unoptimized Code Patterns

• Detects nested loops with high iteration counts, memory-intensive operations, and excessive object creation.
• Flags bad coding practices like unnecessary logging, improper exception handling, and inefficient resource management.

Evaluates Database Performance

• Analyzes SQL queries for optimization opportunities, including missing indexes, Cartesian joins, and full table scans.
• Highlights inefficient ORM usage that can cause unnecessary database calls

Measures Code Complexity & Maintainability

• Uses cyclomatic complexity and maintainability index to assess how difficult the code is to understand and modify.
• Identifies functions and classes that need refactoring for better performance.

Security & Performance Correlation

• Identifies security risks that may also impact performance, such as SQL injection risks leading to slow database queries.
• Ensures optimized memory management to prevent DoS vulnerabilities due to memory leaks

Automated Technical Debt Calculation

• Quantifies technical debt related to performance issues, helping teams prioritize fixes.
• Estimates cost and effort required to resolve inefficiencies in the codebase.

Detects Architecture Violations

• Analyzes application layering, dependencies, and modularity.
• Identifies tight coupling, circular dependencies, and poor separation of concerns, which can impact performance.

Interesting facts-

??CAST SQG Understands 150+ technologies - Cloud, web, mainframe, mobile, 3/4GL, frameworks, databases, please refer .https://doc.castsoftware.com/technologies/

??CAST SQG analyze application of any size ranging from 20,000 to 20,000,000 lines of code.

Key Benefits

? Improves application responsiveness by eliminating slow-performing code.

? Enhances scalability by optimizing architecture and database interactions.

? Reduces memory leaks and inefficient resource utilization.

? Enables proactive performance tuning by detecting issues early.

? Boosts maintainability by restructuring complex and inefficient code.

Further references-

https://www.castsoftware.com/

https://doc.castsoftware.com/technologies/

https://technologies.castsoftware.com/rules?sec=std_cast_efficiency&ref=||

https://www.castsoftware.com/sqg/capabilities

Several tools offer similar capabilities to CAST AIP in terms of static code analysis, software intelligence, architecture assessment, and performance optimization. Here are some of the comparison-

??Which One Should You Choose?

?? Choose CAST SQG if you want a tool that helps with code quality, maintainability, and architecture analysis.

?? Use SonarQube if you need a free, open-source tool for code quality and security, with paid options for enterprises.

?? Pick Veracode or Checkmarx if security is your main concern.

?? Go for Black Duck or Sonatype Nexus IQ if you need to manage open-source dependencies and risks.

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