What are the most effective ways to maintain and upgrade embedded systems?

What I’ve found to work best is try to not differentiate embedded development from other types of development, especially when it comes to design principles. Don’t compromise on SOLID, KISS or DRY just because it seems “impossible” because it’s embedded. This is software. Anything is possible, you just need to find a way to do it

For sustainability, on the HW side, manufacturers need to pay attention to the selection of components that are in active production. On the SW side, I believe that using current platforms and versions will increase sustainability.

-Up-to-Date: Keep SW & FW current for the latest features & security fixes. -Git: Track changes and rollbacks. -OTA (Remote Oversight): Remote system checks, enable off-site issue resolution. -Quality: Fix the root cause not the symptom. -Doxygen: Record all troubleshooting and future upgrades. -Fraud Defense: Encrypt, use access controls, and security checks for system safety. -Risk & Disaster: Plan for the worst with backup and recovery procedures. -Eco-Friendly: Optimize power use for energy efficiency and system longevity. -Reliable: Backup components with failover strategies. -Upgradable: Design for easy upgrades, allow part replacements without overhauls. -Immortal: Aim full lifecycle, address outdated components. -User Support

To maintain and upgrade embedded systems effectively: Regular Updates: Keep firmware and security patches current. Monitoring: Implement remote monitoring and robust diagnostics for proactive issue detection. Modularity: Design with modularity for independent component upgrades. Backup: Ensure reliable data backups and comprehensive recovery procedures. Lifecycle Management: Plan for the system's entire lifecycle, including component longevity. Testing: Conduct thorough regression and field testing for reliability. Cybersecurity: Implement secure boot, strong authentication, and encrypted communication. Continuous Improvement: Establish feedback loops, adopt agile practices, and iterate based on user input.

5 most effective ways to maintain and upgrade embedded systems; Documenting meticulously, Monitoring and testing proactively, Prioritizing security updates, Maintaining a spare parts inventory actively, Designing for modularity

Using VCS-es in embedded systems became hard and almost useless because of the tools used for development. For example, Vector DaVinci tools have something like this sentence in their documentation: "When you open and save a project, even if nothing changed in it, you have new ID-s of objects inside of ARXML saved". Yes, they know this, but instead of fixing the issue they invented their own merge tool. Regardless, VCS is not only a merge but also a way to track and resolve development. Therefore, it is important to mention, that at the same time, it is very important to use proper development tools that have maximum compatibility with VCS such as Git (readable text format, using no binary files to store source information, and so on).

This ultimately comes down to developers. Use tools adopted by the industry, that are tried and tested, wherever possible and push your managers for migration away from difficult to use tools.

In collaborative development, Git shines as a vital tool. Its prowess in version tracking and codebase integrity is unmatched, enabling seamless teamwork and preserving code quality. Git isn't just a best practice; it's the linchpin for efficient and reliable collaborative software development.

FOTA and OTA epitomize the pinnacle of remote updates. FOTA focuses on updating firmware over the air, ensuring the core software evolves effortlessly. OTA encompasses broader updates, ranging from firmware to applications, delivering comprehensive enhancements remotely.

Hay que considerar los Parches y Actualizaciones de Seguridad. Mantener actualizados los sistemas con los últimos parches de seguridad para protegerse contra vulnerabilidades conocidas. Establecer un proceso automatizado para monitorear y aplicar actualizaciones de seguridad de manera regular.

My experience after designing and building several embedded systems for medical devices shows that one of the most effective methods for making it possible to update and upgrade of the software of the system is implementation of SDLC .

Design with the end customer in mind. Don't waste time on technicalities if your client base doesn't care nor need it. Focus on making the simple things work right first time, and continue to do so reliably over their expected lifetime.

I agree with all the above points - One point to add on is to have "Impact Analysis" at system level and "DRBFM" at discipline level depending on the update you are going to do on your system( maybe HW component/ SW component). Maintain traceability of these updates with customer requirement updates.Define action items with respect to each update and close them.I feel this would make maintenance of an embedded system effective and qualitative.