June 2007
Making free code payTake two teams of software developers. How can Team A churn out application X in half the time
that it takes Team B? Both teams are the same size. Both teams have equally competent coders.
And the code produced by Team A is better quality, better documented and more robust than
that produced by Team B...
Need Secure Software?
Security in modern embedded systems is critical - software developers must keep ahead of the “bad guys”. A key decision is the choice of programming language: while some languages make it easier to produce secure code, others seem to exacerbate rather than solve the problem...
Does Open Source have to mean open to risk?
The acceptance and use of open source as an organic part of the application development lifecycle continues to grow. A 2007 report by Gartner Research states that by 2008, 95% of Global 2000 organisations will have formal open-source acquisition management strategies in place to address the challenges and opportunities of OSS...
DNV: Improving software life cycle programmes using IT risk management
In recent years, software development processes have become a core element in agile, market-focused organisations. These processes – and their continued improvement - are seen as vital in cutting operational costs or maintaining margins in highly competitive, globalised markets...
Integration is the key to true teamwork
As the year on year growth in the size and complexity of software almost becomes exponential, it becomes more difficult to develop programs using traditional methods. One way to try and solve this problem is to throw more resources at it...
Software security lessons from the professionals
Finding issues in code before anytime runtime tests is a simple value proposition. This is because static analyis tools have been around for some time - Lint, RATS, ITS4 and so on. Today, many proprietary static tools exist. Some focus on quality issues (i.e., memory leaks) while others focus on finding security vulnerabilities...
The importance of ALM for Aerospace and Defence (A&D)
Software development for the A&D industry differs from typical commercial software development in several key ways: the deliverables are often mission critical or safety critical systems, which require a level of rigour and quality that exceeds that of the average commercial software product...
Software Production Management comes of age
There's no software engineering environment more demanding than the world of embedded systems. Embedded system developers are faced with building software that must run on a multitude of target hardware, with short time to market driven by rapid innovation and competition, and with the challenge of incorporating third-party code...
It pays to be ‘open’ in software development
As IT becomes ever more pervasive within the business world, the importance of having reliable, focused software delivered on time and within budget is paramount for any organisation. More and more business transactions rely on the integrity of the IT infrastructure and software in place, and software is now recognised as being an area where businesses can actually gain competitive advantage over their rivals...
March 2007
Application Lifecycle Management in Embedded Systems EngineeringToday’s embedded systems are complex and widespread. According to the Automotive Open System Architecture (AUTOSAR) consortium, today’s modern cars can have up to 70 electronic control units. Embedded software is the integration technology of choice, and often the differentiator for a product...
Don’t let a File System let you down
It’s a known fact that the embedded world has always trailed behind the mainstream-computing world especially in the x86 market. This sometimes is a disadvantage in terms of the performance of CPU and available technology etc. but equally can be an advantage in that problems often already have a solution to them by the time they hit the embedded market...
Introducing the Main Structural Capabilities of SysML
The SysML standard gives systems engineers and architects a much-needed way to collaborate using a common language that is specifically designed to support this process. As a standard modelling language for systems engineering, SysML enables improved communications across development teams, while greatly enhancing the ability to manage ever-growing system complexity...
Leveraging the Power of Modelling, Simulation and Code Development for Optimal Results
Open source development evokes a great deal of interest and attention from engineers looking for a low-cost, intuitive and universally accepted means to develop new software projects. With the emergence of the Eclipse open source community, developers are naturally interested in using a standard framework to develop embedded and/or real-time applications...
Developing mobile applications with variant management
Fifty percent of the development budget for a mobile game can go on porting and testing the game for different devices. Variant management is an emerging approach that promises to reduce this cost significantly through explicitly managing information about what is common and what is different for each device...