"The Power of Ten" refers to a set of ten rules developed by Gerard Holzmann of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory for use in writing safety-critical software. The rules are simple, but they specify strict limits on the forms code can take. These limits support code clarity and analyzability, which are especially important for safety-critical applications. In addition see the Power of Ten website for more information.
The rules and rationales are described in a 2006 paper:
Gerard J. Holzmann, "The Power of 10: Rules for Developing Safety-Critical Code,"Computer, 39(6), pp. 95-97, June 2006.
Relevant Warning Classes
The following PDF shows the CodeSonar warning classes that are associated with Power of Ten rules. The tenth rule, POW10:10, is associated with some checks and also requires the use of a static analysis tool such as CodeSonar. These warning classes are matched with CodeSonar 7.4.