Agile Hardware Development with Gregor Gross

The Agile Embedded Podcast

In this fascinating episode, we dive deep into the world of agile hardware development with Gregor Gross, a civil engineer who runs Alpha-board, a PCB design service company in Berlin, Germany. Gregor shares his unique perspective on applying agile principles to hardware projects, where you can't just hit compile and get a new increment.

We explore the practical challenges of agile hardware development, from structuring contracts differently to breaking complex PCBs into testable modules and shields. Gregor discusses the importance of mixed hardware-software teams, the role of automated documentation, and why his engineers resist pair programming despite its proven benefits. The conversation also touches on the cultural barriers to adopting agile practices in traditional hardware companies and the innovative approaches needed to make agile hardware development work in a service provider context.

Key Topics

• [02:30] Introduction to Alpha-board and agile hardware development services
• [05:15] Defining agile principles: functionality-focused development and prioritization
• [12:45] Contract challenges: moving from fixed-price to hourly service contracts
• [18:20] Practical agile hardware: breaking PCBs into testable modules and shields
• [25:10] Mixed teams and automated documentation for hardware-software collaboration
• [32:40] The pair programming experiment: better results but team resistance
• [38:55] Customer expectations and the need for end-user access in agile projects
• [44:30] Version control and Git integration for hardware design workflows

Notable Quotes

"We are probably the only service provider in Germany that offers agile hardware development because I don't see so many people speaking about it." — Gregor Gross

"Software is soft, hardware is hard. I was waiting to say that." — Gregor Gross

"My experience from pairing was they work harder. They feel like they observe themselves... but there wasn't any mistakes. And actually they themselves said they were surprised by how much they did because they did more than twice what they expected." — Gregor Gross

"It's better to have different shields and modules that have some of the functionality. And so you can start iterating through these functionalities and test them." — Gregor Gross

Resources Mentioned

• Alpha-board - Gregor's PCB design and agile hardware development service company
• Zephyr OS - Real-time operating system mentioned for prototyping with sample boards
• KiCad - Open source EDA tool recommended for mixed teams and transparency
• Andrew Greenberg's KiCon Presentation - Presentation on schematic style guides for better readability

You can find Jeff at https://jeffgable.com.
You can find Luca at https://luca.engineer.

Want to join the agile Embedded Slack? Click here

Are you looking for embedded-focused trainings? Head to https://agileembedded.academy/
Ryan Torvik and Luca have started the Embedded AI podcast, check it out at https://embeddedaipodcast.com/