Adopting agile in an embedded platform Suryakiran Kasturi & Akhil Kumar
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The document outlines the challenges and solutions of adopting agile practices in developing IoT devices at Seastar Labs. It emphasizes the importance of cross-platform compatibility, utilizing continuous integration tools like Jenkins, and establishing a streamlined process for stakeholders involved in the development cycle. Key takeaways include the use of platform-independent libraries and the development of a device simulator to improve testing efficiency and integration.
Adopting agile in an embedded platform Suryakiran Kasturi & Akhil Kumar
- 1. Adopting Agile in an embedded platform - SuryaKiran Kasturi & Akhil Kumar
- 2. Agenda •Introduction to Presenters •Problem Statement •Our Solution •Planned Improvements •Jenkins Configuration and UT Output •Key Takeaways •Q & A Seastar Labs Private Limited 2
- 3. Problem Statement Seastar Labs Private Limited 3
- 4. Developing an IoT device requires multiple development environments. • Firmware functions • Drivers • Operating System IoT Device • Device drivers on windows/mac • Software application on windows/mac to interact with the device • Monthly deliverables and showing demos to the client on current progress • One team responsible for whole nine yards Need automated tests for embedded code and host PC and Mac: Should run to qualify every change. Seastar Labs Private Limited 4 USB PC/MAC
- 5. The e2e solution stack involves multiple technologies HTML/CSS Java Script Business Logic (C/C++) Service(s) (C/C++) Host OS Embedded App (C/C++/Assembly) Device Drivers XYZ Board Wire Protocol Host can be PC/Mac/Linux Device Seastar Labs Private Limited 5 Chromium Embedded FW Embedded Linux
- 6. Multi-OS development/build environment requires all tests to pass every where. Source Control (SSOT) Linux Windows Mac Seastar Labs Private Limited 6
- 7. Multi OS development environment gives rise to interesting challenges. • Device code is cross compiled for ‘xyz’ embedded platform using Linux x86 . But it can only run on ‘xyz’. How do we test ? • Mac version of host software requires Mac OSX to build and test. • Windows version of host software requires Win 7/8/8.1 to build and test. • Most changes would trigger all 3 builds. How do we test ? • Should we slow down the development pace of Host Software to wait for device software to be available? • In production, host software needs device to be connected with which human interacts. Should we use same setup for integration tests ? Seastar Labs Private Limited 7
- 8. Our Solution Seastar Labs Private Limited 8
- 9. Multiple stakeholders means we need to have a clear process for each stakeholder • Develops code, • Writes Uts for new/modified functionality • Runs Uts and ensures they pass • Checks in to source control after code review • Update Jira Commit triggers builds • Waits for a successful build • Tests the build to verify the visible changes based on Jira • QA releases the build to field users QA/QE Jenkins Build successJira notification Developer • Builds the source code (device and host) • UTs executed: simulate device • Build is broken and mails are triggered for dev. o Issue with device code/UTs o Issue with host code/UTs o Issue with signing the binaries o Issue in publishing the build • Build is successful mails are triggered for QA and internal users Multiple Jenkins Builders Seastar Labs Private Limited 9 Build failure
- 10. Keep code and unit tests platform neutral to get biggest bang for the buck. • Device code is also compiled for Linux x86. So that unit tests for device can be run on Linux x86 machine. • Use platform neutral libraries such as APR, Boost C++, Poco, thrift etc. to make sure that the application code behaves predictably on Win/Mac. Note: we still run all unit test cases on all platforms. This speeds up the development process as we can use a single code base which would compile differently on different OS • Developed device simulator to mimic entire protocol between device and host, this way we didn’t have to wait for the device hardware and software to be ready • Used Jenkins as the CI tool to ensure that all check ins are Unit Tested before the build is given for QA • Use TUT C++ framework: Really light weight (1 hpp file) and platform neutral • Use platform emulators to test assembly code during test run Seastar Labs Private Limited 10
- 11. Planned Improvements Seastar Labs Private Limited 11
- 12. We are evaluating improvements in the testing part of the Jenkins builder • We are evaluating use of software which will ensure that the unit tests will be run in the following condition • Latest firmware is installed on the device (This is being done manually now) • Unit tests would be run to ensure that we are actually interfacing with the device‘s latest firmware • Software's being considered include: • Robot Framework • Fitnesse • Slim Seastar Labs Private Limited 12
- 13. Jenkins Configuration and UT Output Seastar Labs Private Limited 13
- 14. Configuration settings that need to be made in the project to achieve running of UTs Seastar Labs Private Limited 14
- 15. Unit test reports from Jenkins mentioning all test groups to ensure all classes are covered Seastar Labs Private Limited 15
- 16. Build time impact to run each unit test in Jenkins is around 2.24 seconds Seastar Labs Private Limited 16
- 17. Key Takeaways Seastar Labs Private Limited 17
- 18. With minimal effort we can ensure that embedded software can be built using CI • Key Takeaways: • Use platform independent libraries such as APR, Boost C++, Poco framework, thrift etc. to make sure that the application code behaves predictably on Linux/Win/Mac. • Run all unit test cases on all platforms. • Use light weight Unit test framework. • Develop a device simulator to mimic entire protocol between device and host, this way you don’t have to wait for the device hardware and software to be ready. • Use a CI tool like Jenkins to ensure that all check ins are Unit Tested before the build is given for testing. • Developer is responsible for unit testing in one dev environment while Jenkins builders are responsible for all. • Attention to build failures is crucial. Seastar Labs Private Limited 18
- 19. Seastar Labs Private Limited 19 Q&A