Embedded Software: Industrializing for High Performance

In our work with leading global electronics and high tech companies, we've seen firsthand the challenges that organizations face in creating embedded software.

Based on these insights—plus our own hands-on experience in software development—we have developed a structured approach to embedded software that can substantially improve product quality, as well as reduce time to market and development costs.

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It's an understatement to say that the past decade has seen the electronics and high-tech industry evolve dramatically. Many manufacturers are struggling to adapt to this new competitive environment. They struggle to consistently deliver high quality software on time and within budget.

One of the key reasons for these struggles is the lack of a standardized, enterprise - wide, scalable approach to core embedded software development—in effect, the industrialization of the software development process.

Accenture defines industrialization as an enterprise-wide, cross-project delivery engine that reduces total time to delivery, improves product quality, and provides efficient utilization of people, processes and investment resources and allows for predictable results.

Delivering a successful product requires a multidisciplinary team involving engineering, marketing, product management, program management, documentation, training, manufacturing, technical support, sales, partners and others.

Industrialization can help companies create robust embedded software development capabilities, plus the essential cultural and organizational characteristics to enable them to out-execute their competition.

Industrializing embedded software development can benefit communications and high-tech companies in several important ways. Industrialization supports reuse once a company adopts a standard development toolset, any engineer at any location can reuse proven code and designs instead of reinventing everything from scratch.

Compressing these "cycles of learning" can have a dramatic impact on quality and time to market. Clearly, the fourth element of industrialization—standard, layered architecture—also plays a crucial role in maximizing reusability, particularly during the transition from an old to a new platform.

As hardware becomes commoditized and value is increasingly driven by embedded software, the real question is which of today's companies will be most successful at building distinctive embedded software capabilities to enable them to outperform the competition. Accenture believes industrialization is one such capability and a highly effective way to address these challenges. Indeed, we have found that companies implementing industrialization have generated significant tangible benefits, including:

• Higher quality: Industrialization has enabled companies to achieve CMM (capability maturity model) compliance and develop products that are better aligned to meet market requirements.
  
  
• Faster time to market: a 30 percent to 50 percent reduction in time to market and a similar improvement in staff productivity are not uncommon.
  
  
• Lower costs: a 10 percent to 20 percent reduction in unit cost, a 20 percent to 30 percent drop in variable and fixed testing costs and a 20 percent to 50 percent decrease in overall costs are also possible.

While the figures above are not guaranteed, Accenture believes that by industrializing embedded software development, communications and high-tech companies can take great strides toward improving operational efficiency, satisfying customer needs more completely and achieving high performance.

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Vincent Buggé leads the Technology Consulting Workforce for Accenture's Communications &High Tech operating group.

Michael Pegg is a senior executive in Accenture's Communications & High Tech operating group.

Ali Piyarali is a senior executive in Accenture's Electronics & High Tech Industry group.