When developing reliable software, outsourcers and developers must consult each other thoroughly to clearly establish the requirements and deadlines, and manage quality and costs.

 In the past, software development often began without a clear purpose for the end product. This led to scheduling problems, overblown budgets and an unusable product. However, it is hard to achieve improvements when multiple companies are involved because development know-how is a closely guarded asset for each company.

 As a public institution unbiased towards any entity, IPA has highlighted these problem areas and is working to improve software reliability by providing ‘yardstick’ tools, which visibly measure quality.

 IPA seeks to solve issues in all areas of software development.

 Enterprise software: Enterprise software supports infrastructure, such as railways and electricity. IPA is promoting the streamlining and spread of administration procedures in this area, including efficient procedures for developing reliable information systems, as well as transparency (visibility) and measurement (status quo analysis) in a field involving many large-scale systems.

 Embedded software: Embedded software is built into household appliance, automobiles and other devices, and serves to operate (control) its host device. Since the software quality is linked to the product quality, IPA is working in this field to streamline and spread practical development procedures to efficiently develop quality embedded software.

 Integrated Software: Integrated software interconnects various pieces of software and operates on networks. Due to the recent increase in the importance of this field, IPA is working to spread and promote reliable software development and administration technology, which places importance on the planning stage, and measures to improve reliability.

 Recently, users are unconvinced when software companies, themselves, tout their products as being of a high quality. However, evaluating advanced software can be difficult in some cases, because the technology used is too advanced. Therefore, a system is required that will verify software quality from an unbiased perspective and help users make informed judgments.

 IPA operates a system in which third-parties independent from software companies and users evaluate software quality and this information is provided in an understandable format for the average user with no technical knowledge. This system provides everyone with objective proof of the software's quality and enable people to confidently select a product.