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Index
Preface
Why I wrote this book
Who should read this book?
What’s covered? What’s not?
A word on nomenclature
Keeping in touch
1. The 11 Deadly Sins of Product Development
The Fundamental Principle of Product Development
The Vice of Laziness
Deadly Sin #1: Putting Off “Serious” Testing Until the End of Development
The Vice of Assumption
Deadly Sin #2: Assuming That We Know What Users Want in a Product
Deadly Sin #3: Assuming That Users Know What They Want in a Product
The Vice of Fuzziness
Deadly Sin #4: Lack of Comprehensive Requirements
Deadly Sin #5: Lack of a Good Project Plan
Deadly Sin #6: Not Assigning Responsibility
The Vice of Cluelessness
Deadly Sin 7: Not Addressing Regulations
Vice of Perfectionism
Deadly Sin #8: The Sin of New-Feature-itis
Deadly Sin #9: Not Knowing When to Quit Polishing
The Vice of Hubris
Deadly Sin #10: Not Planning to Fail
The Vice of Ego
Deadly Sin #11: Developing Technology Rather Than Developing Products
Final Thoughts
Resources
2. How Products Are Manufactured
Manufacturing Overview
Supply Chain
Building Circuits: PCB Assembly
PCB Assembly: Solder Paste Application
PCB Assembly: Placing Components
PCB Assembly: Reflow
PCB Assembly: Optical inspection
PCB Assembly: Hand soldering and assembly
PCB Assembly: Cleaning
PCB Assembly: Depaneling
Test
In Circuit Test (ICT)
Functional Test
Final Assembly
Final Functional Test
Packaging
More, and Less
How Many?
Higher-volume production
Lower-volume production
The people stuff: factory culture
Final thoughts
Resources
Factory Automation
Factoryless (e.g., DIY) Manufacturing
3. Process Overview
Don’t panic!
Product Development Life Cycle Overview
A Great Idea
Preliminary Planning: Does this make sense?
Ballparking
Setting stakeholder “ground rules”
First Reality Check
Detailed Planning, a.k.a. Surprise Management
Product Design
Technical Derisking
Second Reality Check: Go, or No Go?
Development
Prototypes
Testing
Purchasing
Manufacturing
Factory New Product introduction (NPI)
Pilot Production
Ongoing production
Final thoughts
Resources
4. Preliminary Planning: If We Build It, Can It Be A Success?
Introducing OpenPed
Why does the world need OpenPed?
Marketing Requirements
Target markets
Can it make money?
Accounting 001
Income projections
Cost of Goods Sold
Gross Margin
Can we develop it?
Locating unobtanium
Go/No-Go?
5. Development 1 — Detailed Product and Project Definition
Phase Overview
Iteration
The road ahead – an overview
What will it do? Specifying our product
User stories
Use Cases
Requirements
From what, to how
Architecture basics
More architectures, and design
Technical Risk Reduction
Updated COGS estimate
Go/no-go: redux
6. Detailed Development
Detailed development process
Software and electronics: chicken and egg
Electronics
Software
Mechanicals (enclosures)
System Integration
Testing
Verification testing
Manufacturing testing (and device programming)
Moving into manufacturing
Final thoughts
Resources
Electronics
Software
Injection Molding
DFM & DFA
Rapid Mechanical Prototyping
Testing
Moving into Manufacturing
7. Smart Platforms: Processors
Low-end microcontrollers
8051 Class
AVR
PIC
MSP430
Middling Microcontrollers/Processors
Cortex-M: microcontroller profile.
Cortex-R: real time profile
Cortex-A: application profile
Big iron: desktop- and server-class processors
Other Hardware Platforms
Systems on Modules (SOMs)
Single-Board Computers (SBCs)
DSP chips
FPGAs/CPLDs
Final thoughts
Resources
8. Smart Platforms: Operating Systems
Board Support Packages (BSPs)
RTOSs
Predictability
RTOS licensing
Middleweight OSs
Embedded Linux
Android
Windows Embedded
Boot loaders
Heavyweight OSs
Final thoughts
Resources
9. Powering Our Product
Batteries
General battery characteristics
Battery chemistries
Lithium Ion (Li-ion and LiPo)
Wall outlets: AC to DC power conversion
DC-DC Power Conversion
Linears and Switchers
System-level power design
Supplying the necessary juice
Minimizing power consumption
Minimizing cost and complexity
Final Thoughts
Resources
10. Staying Safe: Regulations, Standards, Certifications and Marks
Regulatory Fundamentals
Process Overview
Do these apply to little manufacturers like me?
Laws, regulations, standards, and other regulatory words
Location
Categories of regulations
Ambiguity in Regulations
Conformance testing and certification
Navigating US regulations
CPSC
FCC
European Regulations
CE marking
US vs. EU
Finding the EU regulations that apply to us
Cradle to grave: safe disposal
Batteries at 35,000 feet
ITAR
Quality Systems and ISO 9001
Final Thoughts
Resources
Voluntary certifications
EU Regulatory Framework
ISO 9001
11. Requirements that work: the art and science of specifying what matters
Requirements vs. Goals vs. Specifications
Why Requirements?
The Case Against Requirements
Customers don’t really know what they want until they actually have it.
Technologists build what we ask them to build, not necessarily what we meant for them to build.
We gain important insights as the project progresses
The world around us keeps changing
Writing Good Requirements
Careful: Requirements are design constraints
Requirements should be testable
Requirements are interface-centric
Positive requirements vs. lurking requirements
A lurking requirements checklist
Communicating requirements
Making requirements clearer
Great requirements come from great participation
Maintaining Requirements
Requirements Management Software
Final thoughts
Resources
12. Meta-Stuff: Project Planning, Project Management, Issue Tracking, and Document Control
Project Planning
Effort-driven project planning
Project Management
Issue tracking
Document control
Change Management
Final thoughts
Resources
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