Evolving into Embedded Development

In late 2005 we had the opportunity to start our first embedded development project. We apply agile practices to a variety of domains from web development to desktop applications to factory floor test equipment. The challenge for this new work was not learning the environment and technology. Our challenge was applying the practices of the agile world to the small and complex world of embedded systems. The hurdles were numerous: we battled the archaic state of many embedded tool sets, the lack of integration with tools like Rake that provide easy automation, and poor support for object oriented design. We’ve overcome each of these difficulties. This report is about our yearlong experience in introducing our development practices to embedded