Effective Test Driven Development for Embedded Software

Methodologies for effectively managing software development risk and producing quality software are taking hold in the IT industry. However, similar practices for embedded systems, particularly in resource constrained systems, have not yet become prevalent. Today, quality in embedded software is generally tied to platform-specific testing tools geared towards debugging. We present here an integrated collection of concrete concepts and practices that are decoupled from platform-specific tools. In fact, our approach drives the actual design of embedded software. These strategies yield good design, systems that are testable under automation, and a significant reduction in software flaws. Examples from an 8 bit system with 16k of program memory and 255 bytes of RAM illustrate these ideas