Merging analysis, development and testing activities into a comprehensive methodology and an integrated tool chain

International audienceEmbedded software is often just one part of a system made of various components including e.g. electronics and mechatronics. Thus its development poses special challenges with increasing testing costs and uncertainty about final quality. So our recommended approach is to integrate the testing activities into the global engineering process as well as the working teams, similarly to what has been done in the IT software domain with the introduction of agile methods. The appropriate tool architecture, preferably based on standards, should also be chosen in order to support a virtual repository combining all the engineering activities, from requirements to test through design. We will present a case study to illustrate this integrated approach