“Evolution of Theory: Bringing Theory and Technology into Application”

May 2-5, 2010 Telus Convention Center & Marriot Hotel Calgary, Alberta, Canada

In semiconductor industry, one must approach software management and organization of the software development process differently from traditional software management practices. The key differences are not in the software product or software development itself, but in the business model surrounding the software development in the semiconductor industry. Similar challenges face software managers in any software development where software is regarded as the technology enabler, rather than the technology driver. In the embedded system development, software is one of the components of the final product. Software may be the critical and the defining component of the product, but it is not the product by itself, and does not drive the development schedules. While all traditional software development process models can be applied, special care must be taken of the requirements management, schedule management and schedule alignment to other components of the product. Software often plays significant role in enabling development process and testability of all other components and needs to be scheduled accordingly. For cost effective and efficient operation, the key challenge is keeping development team focused on the generic software development branch while managing different software delivery streams to support new products, new features and specific customer requirements. Software delivery streams have different constraints, different qualification requirements and very different development timeline. One must resist the temptation to split software delivery into separate software branches, as this inevitably leads to a situation where the workload and resource requirements grow exponentially. Workshop will focus on the example of the software development for semiconductors used in mobile phones. Following an overview of the industry trends and practices we'll discuss product requirements, software system requirements, traditional software management practices, and suggest optimal software process and management techniques for this complex situation. Workshop will review key software development process areas from point of CMMI and discuss key challenges in following CMMI guidelines in managing software development in similar environments.

Sponsored by IEEE Canada and the IEEE Southern Alberta Section
by the