Developing embedded software is hard. It gets even more “complicated” when requirements, hardware, schedule, or team composition change. Change, by definition, implies additional work—and the drama comes from how to complete that work without pushing the schedule or adding resources. Put another way, too many changes can put software on the critical path and the development team under a microscope. This session covers strategies for taming inevitable changes and keeping your software off the critical path.

Topics covered will include:

• Dependency management
• BSP: Encapsulating the MCU datasheet, compiler, and board
• Abstract interfaces and other decoupling techniques
• Decoupling drivers from the hardware
• Design for testability and automated off-target unit testing
• Functional simulator
• OCP principle: Software entities should be open for extension, but closed for modification
• Main Pattern: An application is a collection of “wired-together” widgets