Embedded Systems Design - June 2008 - (Page 53)

Name Ganssle BY Jack G.Here break points Faster! N ot long ago, my close friend Kirk, who spent his career managing real estate, read The Soul of a New Machine, Tracy Kidder’s wonderful account of how engineers at Data General produced the Eclipse minicomputer in record time. Kirk found the book interesting and well written, but was dispostpone the inevitable, which is exDecent project management mayed at the high-pressure schedule software appeared in the 1980s. Any- actly what engineering groups do and the people burnout. Then he when they jiggle triangles like this. one can enter complex PERT and made a comment that literally made Project-planning software is, of me stop in my tracks: “I just couldn’t Gantt charts outlining every nuance course, touted as an advance over of piecing together big endeavors. believe that the picture Kidder the primitive, manual tools we used Who uses this stuff successfully? I’ve paints of the high-pressure schedule to create meaningless schedules in watched uncounted developers atis real, though; no one can work like the old days. Now we can fabricate tempt to build a schedule around an that for long.” incorrect data even faster. That’s one arbitrary deadline set by marketing: How could I explain to someone of the beauties of computers: with no connection to the once it took seconds, even high-tech world how schedHow will embedded systems minutes, to make a mistake. ules are always the bane of our existence? That in my engineers survive the demands of With computers you can make thousands of mistakes a career, and in those of althe future when the industry is second. most every engineer I know, already asking for 500% from each People have been writing every project we do is made software for over 50 years, and to capricious and impossible of us? Are there ways to cope? building embedded systems deadlines? That in recent for 30. The one constant over years timelines have shrunk all of that time is that features inthey move triangles around like even more, so Kidder’s depiction crease while schedules shrink. crazy, all except the final one, the seems almost benign by today’s We’re trying to manage three one that has meaning, in an attempt standards? conﬂicting things: an impossible to create a schedule that sounds beSo I’m left wondering if perhaps schedule, an excess of desired fealievable, all the while knowing it’s anyone not involved in the technolotures, and quality. Remove just one utter nonsense. When I was in high gy business has a clue about how leg of the three, and the project beschool, the Jesuits mailed us our rewe’re driven to madness by impossicomes trivial. Can we ship with lots ble schedules. Is our business unique? port cards, which always seemed to and lots of bugs? If so, getting it out turn up on a Friday afternoon. We How many other businesses have on time is pretty easy. Can we neglect would pluck our reports from the such long-term and relentless presthe ship date? With inﬁnite time, we mailbox and reinsert them Monday, sure to get things done faster? Is concan get every feature working right. so the weekend wouldn’t be ruined. stant, unpaid overtime a theme of This twisted triad dooms projects This trick was just a childish way to any other segment of the economy? from the start when developers and management just don’t recognize the Jack G. Ganssle is a lecturer and consultant on embedded truth buried in the conﬂict. The boss development issues. He conducts seminars on embedded invariably wants all three legs: onsystems and helps companies with their embedded challenges. Contact him at jack@ganssle.com. time delivery, perfect quality, and inﬁnite features. He can’t—and won’t—get them. www.embedded.com | embedded systems design | JUNE 2008 53 http://www.embedded.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Embedded Systems Design - June 2008

Embedded Systems Design - June 2008 Contents #Include Party Bit Programmer's Toolbox Cover Feature: Virtual Hardware Platforms for Embedded Software Validation Allocating Memory in MATLAB-to-C Code MDD and IDEs: Making the Twain Meet in Embedded Systems Design Avoid a Thrashing Guest Editor Advertising Index Break Points Marketplace

Embedded Systems Design - June 2008

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