Question

I have had great success e.g. with fast development cycles and continuous integration.

However, I think pair programming or continuous customer communication are less useful due to issues specific of embedded software programming.

What do you think? What are the most useful agile practices on embedded software development?

Answer 1

I would have to disagree. I’ve done it, and about 10 years ago I co-founded an agile coaching company specializing in embedded (we’re no longer a company but the website is still up with several useful resources). I recently helped another company adopt agile for their embedded project, and it worked very well for them.

Agile practices like short iterations, pair programming, and frequent communication with the customer are even more important with embedded software because there’s more at stake, both because embedded systems are usually harder/more expensive to update in the field, and because they are often used in mission-critical applications.

As for pair programming, if your company only has one person that knows the first thing about a component of the software, that’s a huge risk, and pair programming is a great way of doing cheap knowledge transfer. Both developers don’t have to be experts in that part of the code. You can have a primary that is and a secondary who isn’t. The secondary partner is able to offer help on program structure, compare design decisions, ensure proper testing and documentation, etc. Of course each developer has to be a primary sometimes and secondary other times to make the crosstraining effective. This is also a very effective way of bringing new developers up to speed on your products.

Lastly, customers care about features and plans, not code. Embedded doesn’t change this. Showing off what you have so far and what you plan to do next ensures you’re working on what you’re supposed to.