Agile methods applied to embedded firmware development

This paper describes the experience of applying agile approaches to the development of firmware for the Intel® Itanium® processor family. Embedded development (i.e. firmware) projects are quite different from object-oriented and pure software endeavors, yet they face many of the same challenges that agile software development practices address. Several unique challenges are described, including team members´ specialized domain knowledge, technical backgrounds and attitudes toward change, and the impact hardware plays in firmware design. We found agile approaches to be well-suited for our project, despite the fact that most agile methodologists come from very different backgrounds.