Design-time management of run-time data in industrial embedded real-time systems development

Efficient design-time management and documentation of run-time data elements are of paramount importance when developing and maintaining modern real-time systems. In this paper, we present the results of an industrial case-study in which we have studied the state of practice in data management and documentation. Representatives from five companies within various business segments have been interviewed and our results show that various aspects of current data management and documentation are problematic and not yet mature. Results show that companies today have a fairly good management of distributed signals, while internal ECU signals and states are, in many cases, not managed at all. This lack of internal data management results in costly development and maintenance and is often entirely dependent of the know-how of single individual experts. Furthermore, it has, in several cases, resulted in unused and excessive data in the systems due to the fact that whether or not a data is used is unknown.