Scrum for Embedded system devices

embedded-systemsscrum

In our company, we are going to deliver a new product which will be used for mass notification, so it is an embedded software project and we are going to use the SCRUM as a framework for the product.

We have started to write down the product backlog. Based on what I understood the product backlog should reflect a business value for each item. The nature of embedded software is that it has a lot of technical details that will consume a large amount of time to create drivers for microcontrollers, like the SPI, UART, ethernet, WIFI, so on.

for example the System is sounding by playing message for notification, so it is pretty obvious that playing a message is a business value but to achieve this goal i have to write down the -requirements which are what also not how – for many drivers like the SPI, MP3 decoder chip driver, SD card driver and finally the FAT, so all of the previous drivers have requirements that should be written in the product backlog, such that the requirements started with a one business value requirement while it has a lot of technical sub-requirements.

These don't reflect a business value for the client; can someone tell me how am I going to create my product backlog?

Best Answer

Where I work, we create embedded systems and are also using scrum for our development. You're looking at things from a technical perspective, not a feature perspective.

The first thing you should ask is "Why do we need to implement this?" For example: Why do you need SPI? Is it going to be used for EEPROM so you can store serial numbers? Or maybe hook up to a display controller so users can see items on a display? There are a lot of good reasons to create an SPI driver, but creating it just to have it isn't one of those reasons.

With Scrum you should be adopting a "We don't need it until we need it" policy, which is to say that you shouldn't waste time with SPI or wifi or anything else until there is a business need which requires those technologies to accomplish. Then that business need becomes the story.

Try "Add on EEPROM for configuration storage" instead of "Create SPI Code"

and "Create connection to server for remote management" instead of "Find documentation for WIFI and implement"

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