The Agile Embedded Podcast

We talk with Pete Staples, founder of Blue Clover Devices, about the often-overlooked challenge of flashing firmware in production. Pete shares insights from running a contract manufacturing operation in Shenzhen and explains why the handoff from engineering to manufacturing is more like "hucking it over a fence" than a smooth relay race. We explore the gap between engineers' assumptions about fac...

Requirements Engineering Part 2: A Practical Process for Safety-Critical Development In this second part of our requirements engineering series, Jeff walks us through his preferred process for developing safety-critical products, particularly medical devices. We explore the crucial distinction between prototyping and design-controlled development, discussing when to start formal requirements work...

Fuzzing and Dynamic Analysis for High-Integrity Software with Paul Butcher We sit down with Paul Butcher, Unit Director of Dynamic Analysis at AdaCore, to explore verification techniques beyond basic compliance in safety-critical software. Paul shares his experience from Eurofighter to automated trains, explaining how dynamic analysis—from unit testing to coverage analysis to fuzzing—helps find bu...

Linux Profiling with Mohammed Billoo We sit down with Mohammed Billoo, founder of Mab Labs and author of the Embedded Linux Essentials Handbook, to explore the world of embedded Linux profiling and optimization. Mohammed shares hard-won lessons from the field, including debugging a scientific instrument that mysteriously crashed after 60-minute runs and optimizing a sophisticated MANET platform th...

Requirements Engineering Fundamentals - Part 1 We kick off a multi-part series on requirements engineering by exploring what requirements actually are and why they matter - even for Agilists. Jeff shares his medical device expertise while Luca brings his automotive and aerospace background to discuss the different levels of requirements (from high-level user needs to testable system requirements),...

We talk with Tobias Kästner, a physicist-turned-software-architect and technical consultant at Inovex, about his journey from painfully slow hardware-software integration cycles to achieving three-week hardware sprints. Tobias shares hard-won lessons from medical device development, where fuzzy requirements and constant feedback from life scientists forced his team to rethink traditional approache...

We explore how test-driven development (TDD) remains essential—perhaps more than ever—when working with AI coding tools. Luca shares his evolved workflow using Claude Code, breaking down how he structures tests in three phases: test ideas, test outlines, and test implementations. We discuss why TDD provides the necessary control and confidence when AI generates code, how it prevents technical debt...

In this second part of our series on engineering organizations, Jeff and Luca explore how companies that build products should focus their efforts differently depending on their stage and scope. We start with startups and early-stage companies desperately searching for product-market fit, where the brutal truth is: quality doesn't matter yet. Your MVP should embarrass you—if it doesn't, you waited...

In this first part of a two-part series, Jeff and Luca explore how different types of service-oriented engineering organizations should focus their learning and improvement efforts. Drawing from their consulting experience, they examine three distinct categories: product development firms that turn client ideas into reality, engineering development firms that sell specialized technical expertise,...

In this episode, we sit down with Milica Kostic, an embedded software architect from Belgrade, Serbia, to discuss her journey from C/C++ to Rust and what it means for embedded development. Milica shares her experience adopting Rust in production environments, starting with an embedded Linux project using a microservice architecture that allowed for clean isolation of Rust code. We explore the prac...

We talk with Matt Trentini, Principal Software Engineer at Planet Innovation, about using MicroPython for professional embedded development—including medical devices. Matt shares how he was drawn back to embedded development after becoming jaded with traditional C-based workflows, and explains why MicroPython's interactive REPL and rapid development cycle have become game-changers for his team. We...

In this episode, Jeff and Luca tackle the unique challenges faced by solo embedded developers. Drawing from their own experiences as consultants, they explore why working alone makes it harder to maintain good development practices - from the constant pressure to multitask across different stakeholder demands, to the difficulty of wearing multiple hats as leader, manager, and contributor simultane...

In this fascinating episode, we dive deep into the world of agile hardware development with Gregor Gross, a civil engineer who runs Alpha-board, a PCB design service company in Berlin, Germany. Gregor shares his unique perspective on applying agile principles to hardware projects, where you can't just hit compile and get a new increment. We explore the practical challenges of agile hardware develo...

In this special crossover episode with the brand-new Embedded AI Podcast, Luca and Jeff are joined by Ryan Torvik, Luca's co-host on the Embedded AI podcast, to explore the intersection of AI-powered development tools and agile embedded systems engineering. The hosts discuss practical strategies for using Large Language Models (LLMs) effectively in embedded development workflows, covering topics l...

In this episode, Jeff interviews Luca about his intensive experience presenting at five conferences in two and a half days, including the Embedded Online Conference and a German conference where he delivered a keynote on AI-enhanced software development. Luca shares practical insights from running an LLM-only hackathon where participants were prohibited from manually writing any code that entered...

In this comprehensive episode, Luka Mustafa, founder and CEO of Irnas Product Development, provides an in-depth exploration of Zephyr RTOS and its transformative impact on embedded development. We dive deep into how Zephyr's Linux Foundation-backed ecosystem enables hardware-agnostic development, dramatically reducing the time spent on foundational code versus business-value features. Luka shares...

Key Topics [05:30] Cross-disciplinary mobbing with firmware and hardware engineers in IoT development [12:45] Addressing efficiency objections: Local vs global optimization in embedded teams [18:20] DevOps collaboration patterns and reducing friction between software and infrastructure teams [25:10] Selling mob programming to management: Building trust through continuous delivery [35:40] Dynamic t...

Key Topics [03:45] Hardware-software coupling challenges and decoupling strategies [08:20] Documentation overhead in safety-critical medical device development [12:15] Breaking down silos between electrical, mechanical, and software engineering teams [18:30] Hardware abstraction layers as database abstraction equivalents [22:10] Introduction to mob programming: all brilliant minds working together...

From Prototype to Product: Navigating Hardware Manufacturing with Violet Su In this episode of the Agile Embedded Podcast, Luca speaks with Violet Su, Business Development Manager at Seed Studio, about the challenges and opportunities in hardware manufacturing.  The conversation explores the realities of hardware development, from initial prototyping to mass production. Violet emphasizes the impor...

Luca and Jeff dive into how AI tools can supercharge embedded development workflows. Luca shares his extensive hands-on experience, while Jeff brings a fresh perspective as someone just starting to incorporate these tools. They explore how AI can help with coding, testing, and debugging - while emphasizing that good software engineering judgment remains crucial. The conversation is particularly ti...

## Key Topics   * [00:30] Introduction to the listener's question about repository granularity in embedded development * [01:15] The listener's approach: separate repositories for different work products in safety-critical industries * [03:20] Luca's initial reaction and concerns about over-complication * [05:45] Discussion of monorepo approaches and configuration management * [08:10] The concept...

The episode discusses the concept of Minimum Viable Continuous Delivery (Minimum CD), which represents a counter-movement to heavyweight frameworks like SAFe. The hosts explore how Minimum CD provides a set of essential practices for successfully building software-based products without unnecessary complexity. The approach focuses on core principles rather than rigid frameworks, making it particul...

Key Topics * [03:00] Ryan's background in offensive cybersecurity and defense contracting * [04:30] The mindset and challenges of vulnerability research and hacking * [09:15] How security researchers approach attacking embedded devices * [13:45] Techniques for extracting and analyzing firmware * [19:30] Security considerations for embedded developers * [24:00] The importance of designing security...

Key Topics [02:30] Definition of BDD as an additional layer of discipline on top of TDD [03:15] Common pitfalls of TDD, including testing to implementation and brittle tests [08:30] The structure of BDD tests using Given-When-Then format [12:00] Applying BDD at different levels, from unit tests to system tests [15:45] Using test doubles and spies for hardware interactions in embedded systems [22:3...

John Taylor returns to the podcast to discuss his new book "The Embedded Project Cookbook", co-authored with Wayne Taylor. The book serves as a practical guide for embedded systems development, providing recipes and techniques that John has refined over his 30+ year career. Unlike his previous book "Patterns in the Machine" which focused on software engineering best practices, this new book takes...