Agile methods in embedded system development: Multiple-case study of three industrial cases

• Examines three cases on applying agile practices into embedded system development.
• Visibility of work and system-wide understanding increased.
• Improved communication diminished the need for internal documentation.
• Slow hardware development and specialization of team members challenged agile methods.
• If not possible to present working product, visualize the progress in other ways.

Agile methods are widely utilized in software development but their usage in embedded system development is often limited to software. A case study of three industrial cases was carried out to understand how to tailor agile methods effectively including also hardware development.Agile practices, mostly derived from Scrum, were tailored to fit the needs of each team and the method development was closely followed. Surveys conducted in the beginning and in the end of the cases were compared and complemented with interviews to understand the new working methods and their effects.Case evidence shows that interdependencies between work of each developer were taken into account better, visibility over the whole product increased and need for internal documentation diminished due to improved communication, but dividing hardware tasks into iterations was experienced difficult. With some tailoring, agile practices are beneficial also in the embedded system development.To successfully adopt agile methods into embedded system development, the team must consist of all the project members, the natural cycle lengths of different disciplines and different knowledge between the developers must be accepted and built upon, and the progress of the product must be presented or visualized in the end of each iteration.