Continuous integration and delivery applied to large-scale software-intensive embedded systems

Software development has become one of the world’s most important technologies. In parallel with the emergence of software development itself, development methodologies have evolved from the stage-gated waterfall model to more adaptive development frameworks such as XP and Scrum. As a part of XP and other agile methodologies, continuous integration and continuous delivery were introduced to mitigate problems with a long and unpredictable integration process at the final stage of a project.

Companies that develop large-scale software-intensive embedded systems develop software systems combined with electronic and mechanical systems. These companies can also utilize the benefits from continuous integration and continuous delivery, but only if continuous integration and continuous delivery could be adapted to challenges and limitations introduced by large-scale and by proximity to hardware.

The first part of this thesis identifies the problems that must be taken into account when applying continuous integration to large-scale software-intensive embedded systems. This is followed by definitions and interpretations of continuous integration and continuous delivery applicable to development of large-scale software systems. Finally, the key contributions of the research presented in this thesis are two models and a method, which will help organizations struggling with challenges related to scale and proximity to hardware to better implementations of continuous integration and continuous delivery. These contributions are valuable for both researchers and practitioners, as they provide a systematic approach rather than making changes blindly and hoping for the best.