Ram Chillarege​

About

Ram Chillarege has built his career around transforming software engineering through measurable insight.
He is the inventor of Orthogonal Defect Classification (ODC) — a breakthrough that brought quantitative, structured analysis to the software development process.
ODC is often described as the “MRI machine” for software — revealing how processes and products behave beneath the surface.

Orthogonal Defect Classification​

ODC has stood the test of time.
For more than three decades, as software development evolved from Waterfall to Spiral to Agile, its process-invariant properties have remained relevant.
It provides a foundation that now allows us to bring learning into the AI-driven era.
IBM and IEEE recognized ODC’s impact with their top innovation and achievement awards.

Chillarege Inc.​

As founder of Chillarege Inc., a boutique consulting firm, Ram has helped numerous Fortune 500 companies worldwide over the past 25 years. Advanced algorithms and models were applied to complex software systems in several domains: Networks, Operating Systems, Data, Embedded Systems, and more recently IT applications in Insurance, Finance, Distribution and Retail.

Research and Leadership​

A researcher at heart, Ram has authored more than 75 peer-reviewed publications, with his seminal ODC work cited over 1,000 times.
He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and was elected IEEE Fellow.
For over two decades, he has also served in leadership roles at the IEEE International Symposium on Software Reliability Engineering (ISSRE), helping bridge academia and industry.
He was recently honored with the IEEE Meritorious Service Award.