What Makes Applying ‘Agile’ to Embedded Software Development Challenging?

As embedded software grows to become more complex, developers are now opting for the ‘Agile’ method in order to eliminate issues commonly found in the previously used ‘Waterfall’ methodology. However, there are quite a few challenges that can be found in the ‘Agile’ methodology too. Here are a few challenges faced by testers and developers when going in for the ‘Agile’ testing methodology.

1. One of the basic challenges that developers and testers face is the difficulty in finding bugs. Since, the deadlines for embedded software development are quite short, developers are left with very little time to identify hidden bugs.
2. Using the ‘Agile’ methodology is a major problem when it comes to hardware and software combined projects. It takes a significant time to develop hardware, thereby delaying the development process. In embedded software development, Agile cannot be used to test the software unless the hardware is ready to be incorporated with software.
3. Embedded software, using ‘Agile’ methodology, face challenges in the area of applying fixes or upgrades, which also need to work with hardware. This becomes even more difficult when the upgraded software needs to be compatible with existing hardware.