8 Hardware Product Development Tips for Software Companies

In this episode... Renaud and Andrew talk about how to develop hardware products specifically for software companies used to using an agile design approach (often SCRUM) for software products that now need to create a new hardware product to support their business (such as a device that runs on the software). They share their thoughts on the book 'SCRUM for hardware design' by Prof. David G. Ullman, warnings about the limitations of the agile design approach where hardware is concerned that you'll need to be aware of and plan for, and 8 tips for software companies who're in this position to help you understand where other software companies often go wrong.   Show Sections 00:00 - Greetings & today's topic. 01:56 - What's the difference between traditional project management and the agile approach? 08:18 - Why is the agile design approach so popular with software companies? 11:07 - 13 points about hardware design is different from software design from the book 'SCRUM for hardware design' by Prof. David G. Ullman. Less evident modularity Longer design cycles Higher functional interdependence Poor refactoring opportunities Higher need for specialization Longer time to demonstrate function Higher cost of change More demanding range of operation Different testing demands More secondary design activities More challenges in developing specifications Higher difficulty proving a task is done Higher price of premature commitment 23:20 - 8 points that companies that are used to running agile design for software development tend to overlook when developing new hardware products. 23:39 - 1. Agile is good, but planning and documentation can't be skipped. 31:35 - 2. You need to freeze the product design (including freezing the firmware) at one point. 33:48 - 3. An engineering change management process must be taken seriously from a certain point. 35:46 - 4. You need supply chain visibility and to manage it yourself. 39:15 - 5. You will need a quality function. 42:21 - 6. BOM, drawings, schematics, etc. are all as important as software code. 47:55 - 7. Product reliability is important, especially if they have a "product as a service" business model. 52:46 - 8. Product compliance is an entire topic to take seriously. 54:37 - Summary and wrapping up.   Related content... The New Product Introduction Process Guide Why Designing Hardware Using Scrum is Difficult (Video) 11 Common Electronic Product Certification And Compliance Requirements How To Do Product Reliability Testing? Cost Of Poor Quality and Reliability: “Pay Me Now, or Pay Me Later.” What Is Compliance Testing? [Podcast]   Get in touch with us Connect with us on LinkedIn Send us a tweet @sofeast Prefer Facebook? Check us out on FB Contact us via Sofeast's contact page Subscribe to our YouTube channel   Subscribe to the podcast  There are more episodes to come, so remember to subscribe! You can do so in your favorite podcast apps here and don't forget to give us a 5-star rating, please: Apple Podcasts Spotify Stitcher Google Podcasts TuneIn Amazon Podcasts Deezer iHeartRADIO PlayerFM Listen Notes Podcast Addict Podchaser