An Agile Evolution in SoC Verification Panel @ DAC

This year we are trying something new at the Verification Academy booth during next week’s 2015 Design Automation Conference.  We’ve decided to host an interactive panel on the controversial topic of Agile development. I say controversial because you typically find two camps of engineers when discussing the subject of Agile development—the believers and the non-believers.

My colleague Neil Johnson, principal consultant from XtremeEDA Corporation and a leading expert in Agile development, will provide some context for the topic with a short background on Agile methods to kick the panel off. Then I plan to join Neil on the panel, which will be moderated by Mentor’s own world-renowned Dennis Brophy.  Our intent is to have a healthy, interactive discussion with both the believers and the non-believers in the audience.

So, why is the subject of Agile development even worthy of discussion at DAC? Well, not to entirely give away my position on the subject…but I think it’s worthwhile to note some of the recent findings related to root cause of logical and functional flaws from the 2014 Wilson Research Group Functional Verification Study (see figure below).

Clearly, design errors are a major factor contributing to bugs. Yet a growing concern is the number of issues surrounding the specification that are leading to logical and functional flaws.  In reality, there is no such thing as the perfect specification—and few projects can afford to wait to start development until the perfection is achieved. Furthermore, in many market segments, late stage changes in the specification are common practice to ensure that the final product is competitive in a rapidly changing market. Could Agile development, in which requirements and solutions evolve through collaboration between self-organizing and cross-functional teams, be the saving grace?  Please join us on June 8th at 5pm in the Verification Academy booth at DAC and hear what the experts are saying!