May I introduce: The Bridge Builder in Engineering campaign!

We need to break down our silos to survive in the world of software-defined vehicles

The Bridge Builder between Hardware and Software Engineering

One of the biggest divides is between hardware and software developers. However, there are many more dimensions along which different groups and mindsets have established themselves that have nothing to do with those at the other end of this dimension. A good metaphor for this is the islands.

There are islands everywhere you look - and new islands are being created every day

Harry Hardware and Siggi Software have little in common in their language

This is how they sit on their respective islands: Harry Hardware thinks in physical units: dimensions and weights, torques and acceleration values.

On the other island is Siggi Software, who thinks in abstract terms such as data models, programming languages, releases and build pipelines.

Let's build the bridge together and find a common language

To overcome these divides, we need to build bridges and speak a common language. And this is where the terms from TPLE come into play:

• Types are abstract templates with defined boundary conditions in which a system can be ‘brought to life’.

• This ‘bringing to life’ is also known as instantiating a type, which creates a Type Configuration. A Type Configuration represents a concrete instance of the type with concretely assigned option values.

• Features are general characteristics of the product that are transparent and relevant to the customer.

What's next for the Bridge Building campaign?

In the following days and weeks, I will continue to address and shed more light on the topic. The aim is to explain the very abstract and very academic topic of TPLE in a more understandable way. With lots of examples from the real world, this will be a varied endeavour!

Does this approach make the topic of TPLE easier to understand? Please leave a comment or send me a message. Stay tuned for more to come soon!

And don't forget: keep on rocking in a free world!