Page 202 - The Art of Designing Embedded Systems

People Musings 189

Yes No Have bug lists been abandoned (Le., bugs fixed as they
appear)?
Yes No For released products: is every bug being systematically
tracked?
!f any Nos circled: What action will you take today to solve the
problem ?

Tools

Yes No Are the development tools stable (answer “no” if
they’re effectively held together with baling wire and
duct tape)?
Yes No Are all processes automated (compile, link, make,
debugger initial configuration load)?
Yes No Does every developer have reasonable access to the
tools (answer “no” if people are waiting for access)?
Yes No Are hand tools, clip leads. and the like in good
condition?
Yes No Are there adequate supplies of logic analyzer clips
and the like?
Yes No Is the “bozo” bit reset (answer “no” if anyone is
doing something stupid, like holding systems together
with propped-up books, or building 3-D clip-leaded
prototypes that look like works of modern sculpture)?
If any Nos circled: What action will you take today to sohv the
problem ?

Tracking Development Rates
Yes No Is every engineer filling out time cards accurately?
(Answer “no” if this is a mad scramble at the end of
the week, which indicates you’ll never learn how long
it takes to build a product or write a line of code.)
Yes No Is every diversion (such as switching to another
project for a few hours) tracked?
Ifany Nos circled: What action will you take today to solve the
problem ?

Work Environment
Yes No Does each developer know his or her most productive
time, and then use that time wisely (answer “no” if