Electronic equipment software development

Research on Software Development Process of Special Equipment in Electronic Industry

In the field of special equipment for the electronics industry, with the further enhancement of computer computing power, there are more and more equipment integrated control systems based on computer platforms, and the proportion of equipment functions realized by software is increasing. The complexity has also increased. The original structured, sequential, and single development process can no longer meet the requirements of today's large-scale, short-cycle, high-quality, and serialized software development. Research on the development process, guided by software engineering ideas, research the whole process of software development, and explore the equipment software development process suitable for specific application requirements.

1. Introduction to the mainstream software development process

The purpose of software engineering is to advocate engineering principles, principles and methods for software development [1]. Software engineering is a marginal discipline between software science, systems engineering and engineering management. The software development process follows the theoretical basis of software engineering. The software development process is the structural framework of all processes, activities and tasks implemented in system development, operation and maintenance across the entire software life cycle. Typical software development processes include waterfall model, V model, spiral model, and agile development. No matter which model is used, the software development process must include activities that support the entire life cycle of the software.

The waterfall model is the most primitive software development model, and the waterfall model well reflects the various stages of software development, as shown in Figure 1. The problem of the waterfall model in requirements and design is that it cannot be detected in the early stage of project development. Only when the system is integrated for the first time, these design defects will be exposed in the test, resulting in a series of rework: redesign, Coding and testing lead to project delays and increased development costs.

The V-model is a variation of the waterfall model that demonstrates how to link test and analysis design. As shown in Figure 2, the vertices coded V, analysis and design are on the left, and testing and maintenance are on the right. The V-model suggests that unit and synthesis tests should also be used to verify program design. That is, coders and test team members should ensure that the system design aspects of program design have been properly implemented in the code. Similarly, system testing should verify the system design, ensuring that all system design aspects are implemented correctly. Acceptance testing validates requirements by associating a test step with each element in the specification. The linkage of the left and right sides of the V model implies that if problems are found during verification and validation, then the left side of the V can be re-executed to modify and improve the requirements.

Spiral model is a model designed for high-risk projects [3]. Each of its cycles includes four stages of planning, risk analysis, implementation process, and review, which are iterated by these four stages. With each iteration of the software development process, software development advances to another level. The software process using the spiral model is shown in Figure 3.

The basic method of the spiral model is to introduce a very strict risk identification, risk analysis and risk control before each development stage of the waterfall model, which decomposes the software project into small projects. One or more major risks are identified for each subproject until all major risk factors are identified. Compared with the waterfall model, the spiral model supports the dynamic change of user needs, provides convenience for users to participate in all key decisions of software development, and helps to improve the adaptability of the target software. And it provides convenience for project managers to adjust management decisions in time, thereby reducing the risk of software development. However, the use of the spiral model requires considerable experience and expertise in risk assessment. In the development of high-risk projects, if the risks are not identified in time, it is bound to cause heavy losses. Excessive iterations increase development costs and delay commit times.

2.The characteristics of the electronic industry special equipment software

The special equipment software for the electronics industry is a type of application software system that runs on the electrical design hardware platform of the specific component equipment, coordinates the various parts of the drive equipment to complete the system integration, and thus meets the specific process requirements of customers (customers). Special equipment software is a large branch of software, which is widely used in industrial production. This type of software is very different from ordinary commercial software. Commercial software is only applied to computers, while special equipment software is based on computer platforms.

The scale of modern equipment software is getting bigger and bigger, from only a few hundred lines of code initially to tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of codes in modern equipment, and the proportion of software in the function realization of equipment is also increasing. The special equipment software is closely integrated with the hardware, requiring the software to have a friendly man-machine interface, real-time display of various key parameters, high reliability, and stable operation for a long time.

In addition to the hardware facilities of the equipment, the production process of the equipment has a huge impact on the development of the software. Software requirements analysis is a comprehensive analysis of the electrical design and production process of the equipment. Therefore, in the process of software development for special equipment, it is necessary to combine the existing hardware platform with the production process. However, in the development process of new equipment, the equipment has not been put into production, and the production process is not clear. The initial requirements are not clear, and it needs to be adjusted continuously during production. Development brings great inconvenience. However, device software generally only runs on a single device, and the scale of the software is small and medium, so that the impact of changes in requirements on software development is within a certain range.

3. Software development process for special equipment for the electronics industry

Combining the characteristics of special equipment software in the electronic industry and the advantages and disadvantages of various software development processes, according to the characteristics of equipment special software, such as unclear initial requirements and changing requirements during the development process, a software development process based on the spiral model is designed.

First develop a stable software architecture according to the initial requirements, complete a minimum prototype of the software, then complete multiple intermediate versions based on the minimum prototype of the software according to changes in requirements, and finally complete a version that meets customer needs. The software development process is shown in Figure 4.

Description of the software development process:

(1) Project pre-research stage. The main activities are to carry out pre-research and investigation of the project, communicate with customers, estimate the risk and development progress of the software project, evaluate whether the software project is technically feasible, and evaluate the risk of software project implementation. The corresponding documents are project contract, project feasibility study report and project development plan.

(2) Project development stage. Project development can be divided into multiple versions such as minimum prototype version, intermediate version and final version. Each version can be divided into five stages: requirements analysis, general design, detailed design, joint debugging test and version release.

Project development begins with a minimal prototype version, which contains the core functionality of the software. It is the basis for intermediate version iterations. After the minimum prototype version is completed, the development of the intermediate version will continue. The development of each intermediate version will continue to add modules and improve software functions on the basis of the previous version. The modifications made are recorded in each development file, and the process is consistent with the minimum prototype version, so that iterative development of multiple versions is carried out until the final version is completed. The documents that need to be added in the software release stage of the final version development include the user manual and project development summary, and the software will be reviewed by both parties to the contract. After the software has passed the review after equipment process debugging and acceptance, it should be made into an installation package for customers to use. , enter the maintenance stage after passing the review.

(a) Requirements analysis stage: The corresponding document is the software requirements specification. For equipment software, it is important to understand the production process, and draw UML use case diagrams in the requirements specification. When the requirements analysis is completed, conduct a requirements analysis review and form a review opinion. (b) Outline design stage: complete the overall architecture design, divide into modules, complete the outline design specification and software test plan, and have a detailed software architecture diagram in the outline design. When the outline design is completed, carry out the outline design and fill in the review comments. (c) Detailed design stage: write codes for each module and write detailed design instructions. The charts in the detailed design instructions include UML static diagrams of classes, sequence diagrams, and module logic flow charts. Codes and documents are reviewed after the design is completed. Conduct quality reviews. (d) Joint debugging and testing phase: debug the code on the device platform, fix the errors in the program and record them in the software debugging report. (e) Version release stage: After passing the software acceptance review. Release a stage version, giving a version number.

(3) Maintenance stage. During the software maintenance process, if software quality problems are found, the problems should be submitted in the form of documents for technical discussion, researched and solved, and the solutions should be recorded in the software maintenance report. When the software is improved, it shall make improvement records and upgrade the version, and upgrade the software documents that need to be changed. After the software is upgraded, the software upgrade package, upgrade content description and operation manual shall be provided.

By adopting this software development process, various software development documents are formed in the software development process. Documents are the components of the software, the drawings of the software, and the expression of design ideas. It is necessary to ensure that the documents are complete and effective. The documentation provides a basis for checking the work progress of developers, ensures the controllability of software product development, and guarantees the quality of software products. Even if there is a change of value of the original software developers, the new software developers can continue to work quickly according to the retained documents, ensuring the sustainability and maintainability of software development.

Summarize

The special equipment software development process manages the development process of software projects accordingly, clarifies each stage in the process, required software documents and related activities, and improves the controllability, sustainability and reliability of electronic special equipment software research and development. Maintainability ensures that the software becomes a quality product. In the specific application, it should be flexibly adjusted according to the different situations and characteristics of the project, and it cannot be generalized.

The above is the software development process of the electronic industry special equipment introduced by Shenzhen Zuchuang Microelectronics Co., Ltd. for you. If you have software and hardware function development needs for smart electronic products, you can rest assured to entrust them to us. We have rich experience in customized development of electronic products, and can evaluate the development cycle and IC price as soon as possible, and can also calculate PCBA quotations. We are a number of chip agents at home and abroad: Songhan, Yingguang, Jieli, Ankai, Quanzhi, realtek, with MCU, voice IC, Bluetooth IC and module, wifi module. We have hardware design and software development capabilities. Covering circuit design, PCB design, single-chip microcomputer development, software custom development, APP custom development, WeChat official account development, voice recognition technology, Bluetooth wifi development, etc. It can also undertake the research and development of smart electronic products, the design of household appliances, the development of beauty equipment, the development of Internet of Things applications, the design of smart home solutions, the development of TWS earphones, the development of Bluetooth earphone speakers, the development of children's toys, and the research and development of electronic education products.