Busting Myths Agile Embedded Development

agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2014.
Will agile work in my embedded development
environment?
Bent Myllerup
Agilia Conference, Brno March 26. 2014

agile42 | The Agile Coaching Company www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2014.agile42 | We make your Agile transition succeed! www.agile42.com | All rights reserved. Copyright © 2007 - 2014.
Bent Myllerup
Agile Coach & Trainer
bent.myllerup@agile42.com
@bentmyllerup
@agile42/coaches

A bit of context

System Engineering = integrated products
Value

Why Agile doesn’t work in
Embedded…

Statement #1
We cannot have potential
releasable functionality in four
weeks or less!

Statement #2
There is to much diversity in the
required skills for a cross functional
team…

Statement #3
First we must develop the
hardware, then comes software. It
cannot be done in parallel

Statement #4
Continues integration and
automated test does not work in
hardware development

Statement #5
“Welcome changing requirements,
even late in development” - Hello,
Earth calling the agile coach!

Statement #6
Lead time can be six weeks or
more…

Statement #7
User stories do not work for
embedded system development

From My Experience…

19” Backbone Product
New standards for real time
processing…

From Matrix Organization to Focus on the Business
Product Management
Hardware Line
Operations
Software Line
Mechanical Line
Project Ofﬁce
Project#1
Project#2
Project#3
Project#4
C

From Matrix Organization to Focus on the Business
Project#4
Business
Unit #1
Business
Unit #3
Business
Unit #2
Operations
Business
M
anagem
ent
Analog
Analog
Analog
Construction
Construction
Construction
Business
M
anagem
ent
Business
M
anagem
ent
Digital
Digital
Digital
FPGA
FPGA FPGA
C++
C++
C++
DSP
DSP
DSP
Simmulation
Simmulation
Simmulation
Safety
Test
Test
Test
Design
Design
C
C
C
EMC
EMC
EMC
User Domain
User Domain
User Domain
• Business Units formed as self-
organized Scrum teams
• High diversity in skills - true cross
functionality
• End-to-end responsibility for the
project (including the business
case)
• Focus was now making fantastic
products rather that being
fantastic at some technical
practice

New Platform Project the Agile Way
Vision
Customer and

User Needs?
What?
Why?
Worth

doing?
Technology?
Product Backlog
Velocity!

From First MVP to Final Product
1. 2.
3.

Optical Network
Infrastructure
Ericsson R&D for Optical Infrastructure

Busting the Myths…

Myth #1
We cannot have potential releasable functionality in four
weeks
!
•The important thing is that you show agreed and valuable
results every sprint. Challenge yourself (and the
organization) to ﬁnd alternative ways to verify your designs

Myth #2
There is to much diversity in the required skills for a
cross functional team
!
•The more the team is cross-functional the less you
will have to deal with hand-over, reducing waste

Myth #3
First we must develop the hardware, then comes
software. It cannot be done in parallel
!
•With cross functional teams and clever ideas on
developing Minimal Valuable Products, that is not
necessarily a fact!

Myth #4
• Continuous integration
and automated test does
not work in hardware
development
!
• Several vendors are
actually offering tools that
can help you with this.
Some times making an
automated test tool is
actually more fun than
you ever expected.

Statement #5
“Welcome changing requirements, even late in
development” - Hello, Earth calling the agile coach!
!
• Building iteratively and incrementally by validating
requirements on the way, reduces the stress of
changes and the risk
1.
2.
3.

Statement #6
Lead time can be six weeks or more
!
• Is this really a “must” or is a choice that can be revised?
It doesn’t have to be the ﬁnal hardware, and you can
decide to reduce the lead time and increase the
production costs, by developing few samples locally…

Statement #7
User stories do not work for embedded system
development
!
• User Stories help focusing on the value instead of
the technology, and allow to develop optimal
technology to solve the given problems

Now let’s look at the culture

From Individuals or Groups to Teams
In
a
complex
world,
team
organiza4on

is
the
best
answer
to
coping
and

handling
the
complexity
and
chaos
in

projects

Busting Myths Agile Embedded Development

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