Talk

Why Embedded is Broken (and What to Do About It): Transforming Legacy Development Practices Through Modern Principles

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24:03

EOC 2025

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Joe Schneider

The firmware apocalypse threatens both delivery timelines and technical excellence—teams are grappling with mounting technical debt while system complexity quadruples every decade. Joe Schneider experienced these challenges from both management and architectural perspectives during his two decades in embedded systems before founding Dojo Five to address the complete firmware lifecycle. Today, Dojo Five provides expert firmware resources that deliver technical depth without the hiring complexities, while their pioneering platform, EmbedOps®, enables teams to implement hardware-in-the-loop testing, requirements traceability, Zephyr RTOS integration, hybrid Rust-C platforms, and intelligent test optimization specifically designed for firmware development. This powerful combination has empowered organizations across autonomous systems and multiple industries to achieve architectural excellence while meeting aggressive timelines—scaling firmware capabilities without compromising on engineering standards or business objectives. Learn more at https://dojofive.com or contact us at hello@dojofive.com.

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Talk

Why Embedded is Broken (and What to Do About It): Transforming Legacy Development Practices Through Modern Principles

Joe Schneider

24:03 EOC 2025

Joe Schneider

24:03

The embedded systems industry remains anchored to outdated development practices that increase technical debt, slow innovation, and increase security risks.

This presentation examines how modern software development principles can revolutionize embedded development. We'll explore practical strategies for implementing modern toolchains, automated testing, and DevOps practices in embedded projects, demonstrating how these approaches reduce development cycles and improve code quality.

Attendees will learn actionable steps to modernize their embedded development workflow, from selecting appropriate tools to managing the cultural shift within their organizations.

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According to Joe Schneider, what is the primary reason the embedded industry is 'broken' and needs change?

A A general lack of skilled engineers entering embedded systems.

B Hardware resource limits (CPU, memory) make modern practices impossible.

C A complexity crisis where tools, techniques, and processes are not keeping pace with growing system complexity.

D Too much reliance on open-source libraries causing instability.

E Companies spending too much on DevOps and automation rather than manual testing.

What practice does the speaker recommend to reduce late surprises, expensive fixes, and 'integration hell'?

A Keep separate, long-running feature branches and do a big-bang integration at the end.

B Shift left: validate earlier via small increments, automation, managed development environments, and continuous integration.

C Delay testing until the hardware is fully finalized so tests match reality.

D Rely primarily on manual bench testing and large manual test plans to catch issues.

E Have every developer maintain their own bespoke development environment for flexibility.

Which testing strategy best matches the practical approach Joe recommends for embedded projects?

A Use printf-driven bench poking as the main test strategy since it's fastest to implement.

B Rely exclusively on a single exhaustive 400-page manual test plan run at the end of development.

C Adopt a spectrum of tests—unit tests, simulation/emulation, and HIL—plus design for testability and automation.

D Skip unit and simulation tests and only run hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) once hardware is available.

E Outsource all testing to a third party and avoid building test capability in-house.

When starting a cultural shift toward modern embedded practices, what initial approach does Joe recommend?

A Mandate immediate organization-wide process and tool changes on every project at once.

B Pick the single most critical product and use it as the first pilot to demonstrate change quickly.

C Pick a pilot project that matters but is not the most critical, implement basic CI, and learn together through retrospectives.

D Replace the entire team with new hires already familiar with modern practices to avoid training.

E Avoid automation early; focus solely on documentation and planning for the first year.

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Upvotes Newest Oldest

SimonSmith

Score: 0 | 1 year ago | 1 reply

Thanks Joe, that was a well-put together talk, thinking holistically about how we develop firmware. It fits in well with Jacob's keynote. I still see many of these practices. I also recommend SystemView, as an alternative to Tracealyzer for visibility. Do you have any more information about Renode? I first heard about it in last year's EOC and seems to have a lot of potential for avoiding the need for hardware, but there still seems to be very little getting started information online about how to use it. All I wanted to do was to simulate an STM32 and LCD to help write an SPI display driver.

JoeSpeaker

Score: 0 | 1 year ago | no reply

Thanks for the kind words Simon! SystemView does get a lot of use from us too - great point. Renode - it does take some configuration in my experience - it's not as plug-and-play as you might hope. Happy to be a resource if you want to hit me up on LinkedIn, but it does get easier especially if you stick to one architecture. Really cool tool.

datamstr

Score: 0 | 1 year ago | 1 reply

Excellent presentation!

JoeSpeaker

Score: 0 | 1 year ago | no reply

Thank you so much!

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