Delivered at an event organized by the Project Management Institute (PMI) Pune Chapter at a Manangement Institute in Pune.

1. Enabling Products….
… Building Business

2. Challenges in Managing
Embedded Product
Development
12 October 2008
Atul Nene
Email: atul.nene@coreobjects.com
CoreObjects
We build products that help build new businesses

3. Agenda
• Case Study – Remote Keyless Entry
• What is so special about Embedded Systems ?
• Challenges
• External Impacts
• Mechanical Design
• Hardware
• Firmware
• Software
• Manufacturing
• People

4. Case Study – Remote Keyless Entry
• Remote keyless entry system (RKE)
• Additionally, remote keyless ignition system (RKI)
• Broadcasting radio waves on a particular frequency
• Electronic key encrypted during transmission for security
Advanced Feature Considerations
• Larger Range of operation
• Additional Feature Control (Trunk/Boot Release, Light Activation)
• Proximity versus Button Press
Design Considerations
• System on Chip, Secure Communication
• Usability, Durability of Enclosure, Battery Life
• Cost of Production, Target Vehicles

5. What is SO Special about Embedded Products ?
• Examples
• Tyre Pressure Monitor (Automotive Electronics)
• Blood Pressure Monitor (Medical Devices)
• Home Security Appliance (Safe Living Systems)
• Personal Digital Assistants (Personal Productivity Systems)
• Mobile Phones – SmartPhones (Mobile Telephony)
• Audio Video Players ( Infotainment)
• Toys ! (Edutainment)
• Video Games and Game Consoles (Gaming)
• Remote Controls (Entertainment !)
• Robots (Robotics) – Remember the Aibo ?
• Disk Drives (Computer peripherals) – ‘mice’ too! (or should that be
‘Mouses’ ?)
• Industrial Control Panels (Human Machine Interface)
• Any more that the audience can identify ?

6. Components of Embedded Products
• Analog , Digital
• Mechanical
• Microcontroller
Enclosure
• High-power ,
• User Interaction low-power
• Documentation • High volume
• Packaging • Mission critical,
Consumer
End User Electronics
Interface (Hardware)
Software Firmware
• Desktop • Assembly
•C
• Server
• C++
• Network
• Tools

7. The Development Path
Complexity
Mfg.
Testing
Design &
Development
Research/
Prototype
Concept/
Product
Time
Definition

8. Product Considerations
Gadgets, Appliances, Equipment
End (Concept ) to End (Manufacturing) Scope
Business Model considerations (There is fortune at
the bottom of the pyramid, will the buyer of the product get micro-
finance ?)
Packaging & Distribution of end product
User Education and Marketing collateral
• Many more …

9. The Managers Mandate
Program
Management
Mechanical
Design
Electronics
Firmware
Launch!

10. Challenges : External Impacts
• Impact of component pricing on design and customer expectations -
temporal, quantities, accessibility and relationships with vendors,
geographical considerations
• Regulations and Compliance
• Dependency on Pre-stabilized research
• Combining Customer Perspective + User Perspective + In-house
expertise – resolving conflicts
• False Precision Of Estimates : There are tolerances and buffers built
into estimates at all levels but what is most ironic is that no one, and
especially not 'management', will take a range of numbers for an
answer ! Ever tried your boss with 'About 17 to 71 days' ? :)
• A Hidden Rule of Project Management from the book “Why Does Software Cost
So Much?: And Other Puzzles of the Information Age” by Tom DeMarco

11. Challenges : Representative Quote 1
Product failure and development failure are not the
same thing, but they are indeed both management
failures.
• Guy Macon, Electronics Engineer & Project Manager

12. Challenges : Representative Quote 2
“It all had to integrate seamlessly. There are three different
development teams there, and they all have to be in sync
with revisions of both hardware and software. For us, it
was about delivering a set of functionality on the agreed-
upon schedule. For example, Microsoft wanted different
elements of the design operational at certain times.”
• Paul Wilson, a product-line manager for audio products at Wolfson,
part of the team that built the Microsoft Zune, Source: An article on
embedded.com

13. Challenges : Representative Quote 3
Knowing how to solder doesn’t make someone an
electronics engineer.
Knowing how to code doesn’t make someone a firmware
engineer.
Simply knowing how to solder + code doesn’t make you
an embedded system engineer – there is a lot more to it!
• Philip Koopman

14. Challenges : Mechanical Design
• Defining the Usage
• Defining the User Interaction Flow
• High costs of Physical Prototypes
• Who understands the user better - Designer or Customer ?
• Working with ‘Artists’ to deliver on time

15. Challenges : The Importance of User Perspective
My video camera has 53 buttons. It sure does a lot of stuff
dubbing titles, editing and more but is so hard to use it hasn't
been powered on in years. Yet my parents had an 8 mm
camera that had two controls: a roller-skate-like key to wind up
the drive spring, and a quot;take filmquot; button. Its simplicity meant
they recorded every significant (and otherwise) event in the
lives of their 5 kids.
• Jack Ganssle, an authority in Embedded Systems. Source: An
article in embedded.com

16. Challenges : The Importance of User Perspective …
Some intrinsically complex products all but scream ease of use – the iPod comes to
mind, its interface even more compelling when compared with competing units that
offer the same functionality, and yet are utterly mystifying.
Most product differentiation derives from a wealth of features. Cell phones offer
downloadable ring tones, built-in games, schedulers, and more, all nifty enough
stuff but none of which contribute to making reliable calls.
When we engineers, industrial designers, and human-interface quot;expertsquot; overly
complicate these features, or make them incomprehensible, or steer the user to a
manual instead of making their use naturally obvious, we're chasing customers
away.
• Jack Ganssle, an authority in Embedded Systems. Source: An article in
embedded.com

17. Challenges : Hardware
• Technical decisions: internal experts vs. customer experts
• Selecting the right components, expecially the processor and its
variants
• Identifying & Designing Subsystems (SoCs)
• Sleek UIs => Color LCDs/TFTs with TouchPanel => Higher BOM
costs
• Getting the hardware right in minimum number of cycles
• Reliability aspects affect the design and hence needs to be built in
• RoHS compliance
• Longevity of Components

18. Challenges : Firmware
• Constrained environment – limited operating resources
• Choice of OS and development tools
• Writing to a Simulator to parallelize
• Writing to a HAL
• Stabilizing Input – ADCs
• Firmware versions
• Necessity to use manufacturer supplied tools – issues with tools
• Using ‘Flashing LEDs’ and ‘Beeps’ to troubleshoot in an otherwise
‘blind’ environment.
• Building in capacity to debug – towards post deployment diagnosis

19. Challenges : Firmware : Representative Quotes
If you can't write a zero-bug toy
control program, you have no
business being in an industry
where the minimum order is
50,000 masked-ROM parts.
• Found on the Internet
It is possible to write a quot;reset => branch
=> do something => sleepquot; program
with no bugs. In fact, most programs
that consist of less than 32 assembly
language instructions on a very limited
4-bit uP can be made with no bugs.
• Found on the Internet

20. Challenges : Software
• Device to Web Considerations, via Mobile
• Separate effort for ‘Software’ – different from ‘Firmware’ – and
associated skill sets and tools
• Risk of Costs not being considered during planning

21. Challenges : Software : Quotable Quote
fix (vb.):
1. to paper over, obscure, hide from public view;
2. to work around, in a way that produces unintended
consequences that are worse than the original problem.
Usage: quot;Windows ME fixes many of the shortcomings of
Windows 98 SEquot;.
• Hutchison

22. Challenges : Manufacturing
• Undependable component shipping schedules, customs delays
• Design optimization disguised as ‘value engineering’ : avoiding
detriment to quality
• Mechanized PCB Manufacturing and Assembly
• Automating quality control – Test Jig Design and Assembly
• Burning firmware and allied bits on multiple processors and ROMs
• Matching customer’s Launch and Distribution schedule

23. Challenges : People, Primarily Attitudes and Habits
• Embedded Engineers need to have balance of firmware and
hardware thinking.
• Impossible to rollback or modify Requirements after the Design is
complete. Mindset of doing a thorough job of Requirements is
needed.
• Methodical and meticulous – mistakes are not easily recoverable.
• Time-To-Market is critical. Scheduling allows for minimal buffers.

24. Challenges : People …
Embedded engineering can't be cast
in rules, it's art. No certificate will
guarantee an engineer's creativity to
translate product requirements into a
working, cost effective product.
Embedded engineering is
engineering, not art. There is some
art to it - just as there is some
art to architecture. However, the
general disregard of quot;the rulesquot; is why
everyone rolls their eyes when
engineers produce time and cost
estimates.

25. Challenges : People : You be the judge
It's been said that if
buildings were designed
the way software was
designed, the first
woodpecker to come
along would destroy
civilization.
This world would not
have seen the progress
it has today, were it not
for the engineering
discipline. It has been
‘built’, literally.

26. Challenges : People: An Email Communication Bad Practice
A: Because it fouls the order in which
people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on
usenet and in e-mail?

27. Challenges : People: The Good Practice
• What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?
Q:
• Top-posting.
A:
• Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
Q:
• Because it fouls the order in which people normally read
text.
A:

28. Challenges : People: How Meetings go
Hold a Meeting with Customer for Requirements Gathering
Discuss Issues Make Decisions Assign Actions
Hold a Follow-on Meeting
Discuss More Issues Make More Decisions Assign More Actions
Halfway through the project, get call from Customer with Additional Requirements
Can’t lookup whether this is Can’t be sure if there opportunity
Promise the avoidable
violation of previous agreement to make more money
Botch up Delivery
Schedule slippage Put in more effort than planned Lose money

29. Challenges : People: How Meetings SHOULD go
Hold A Meeting with customer for Requirements Gathering
Discuss Issues Make Decisions Assign Actions
DOCUMENT and CIRCULATE the Minutes
Take Special cognizance of the Action Items Use Tools to Track Action Items to completion
Halfway through the project, get call from Customer with Additional Requirements
Lookup previous Minutes Refer the Minutes to Promise with approval of
Set the right expectations
as reference check customer as proof escalation
Make a Better and Profitable Delivery

30. Challenges : Putting it all together
• Building for tolerances,
• Remembering packaging
• Remembering User Documentation,
• Having an acceptable the Final Per Unit Price

31. Thank You
The Managers Motto
- Make Detailed Plans,
- Obtain Stakeholder Buy-Ins,
- Execute, and
- Spread the Cheer !
Q&A
We build products that help build new businesses
12 October 2008
Atul Nene
Email: atul.nene@coreobjects.com