Trends in Embedded Software Engineering

Software's importance in the development of embedded systems has been growing rapidly over the last 20 years. Because of current embedded systems' complexity, they require sophisticated engineering methods for systematically developing high-quality software. Embedded software development differs from IT system development in several ways. For example, IT systems developers can use standard hardware and software platforms and don't face the resource requirements that embedded systems developers must take into account. To meet embedded software's extrafunctional requirements, embedded systems development is shifting from programming to model-driven development. Another important trend is the emphasis on the quality assurance of safety-related systems.