Process Improvement Solution for Co-design in Radio Base Station DSP SW

Abstract

Process improvement studies have tended to focus on one technology area at a time, and on process improvement frameworks, like CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration), and measurements from the top-down point of view. In addition, the management has been the trigger force of process improvement activities. Much less interest at process level has been shown in cross-technological issues, such as co-design, and on the bottom-up approach. In this paper, we point out the importance of the defined co-design activities and the synchronisation of software and hardware processes. Hardware and software designers are the best experts in this difficult co-design process area and thus the development staff involvement together with a bottom-up approach is a respectable alternative to improving processes and practices along with traditional SPI (Software Process Improvement) frameworks. The study is based on empirical studies carried out in Nokia Networks base station unit ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) development and DSP (Digital Signal Processing) software development teams. The bottom-up approach was used to study the processes and the CMMI was used in analysing the findings and linking them to different process areas. We found that, despite the software and hardware, the processes themselves are quite well defined, the deficiencies are related to the invisibility of co-design activities. The technical experience and view was found to be relevant in improving the processes related to the interfaces between two technologies, like hardware and software. Traditional SPI and other process areas improvement work concern themselves typically with their own technology area only, and the process deficiencies close to other technology areas might be blurred. The paper also presents new process improvements for the software and hardware co-work area.