Accelerating embedded software development via agile techniques

Introduction The accelerating rate of technological change for electronic products requires rapid market responsiveness to maintain a competitive edge. Hardware-centric product industries have increasingly turned to the flexibility and adaptability of software to enable critical features and functionality that differentiate their products. As a result, embedded software use is growing to the point that it is becoming omnipresent across multiple industries. The growing importance of software as a differentiator, combined with increasing product complexity, and more frequent release cycles are increasing the cost of embedded software development. Many companies that rely on embedded software are exploring agile software development to cut costs while improving quality and time to market. The challenge for them is that agile software development methodologies differ from traditional hardware product development models, which are typically linear and more rigid in nature. Instead, agile practitioners use a highly adaptive and iterative development cycle based on a collaborative team approach. Although agile has proved beneficial in mainstream software development scenarios, implementing an agile software development framework within the embedded software environment poses a number of unique challenges. After analyzing leading practices of agile software development leaders, PwC has developed an end-to-end structured approach with nine key strategies to help hardware companies successfully adapt agile practices for their embedded software development. (Figure 1) PwC's nine strategies, along with key processes and planning activities, can help companies that rely on embedded software reap the value of agile software development. This article is for product development executives, managers, and others in the many industries that incorporate embedded software.It includes a maturity model that can help organizations identify whether they are leaders, laggards or in the mainstream of embedded software development, as well as guidance about how to improve. 1 Create a Technical Owner role to complement the Product Owner.