IT Simply Works: Simplicity and Embedded Systems Design

Abstract

The central challenge in resource constrained systems is indeed that there is often a dramatic problem of resources: little memory, no display (i.e., mediated control and interaction), and weak processors. These constraints are due to various reasons, including cost (in economies of scale little amounts can make a big difference) and constraints mandated by the host environment such as limitations on weight, size, bandwidth, or power consumption. In addition to structural issues, that already force designers to stretch and squeeze pushing the design to the limit, other problems may affect the design process itself, e.g. when developers must program for a system that is itself still under design: such concurrent development includes easily critical unknown unknowns. Design efforts under these conditions are difficult at best, and it is not clear how much of these constraints and pressures are really unavoidable. We believe that a perspective of designing for simplicity would frame the situation in a more favorable way, leading to systems that better use available resources, are more robust, and easier to maintain and use. In the course of the ITSy project 1 , we interviewed IT experts and industry practitioners about their perspectives on simplicity principles within their research and practice, collecting insights and anecdotal evidence on some phenomena, as well as suggestions for possible principles.In this paper, we apply initial results from this empirical understanding of simplicity to the domain of resource constrained system design. We identify some recurring themes from the outcome of the interviews, and match these understandings for one specific embedded system case study. I. MOTIVATIONMuch has been written and funded on the topics of complexity and complex systems, leading to evident progress in knowledge and practice in that area, though fundamental issues of defining key terms remain [10]. Simplicity, when discussed in the world of IT, has had an almost singular focus on the human interface to technology while perspectives on simplicity within infrastructure design is significantly less well developed. To address this issue, we proposed a fact-finding study on the current culture and practice of simplicity in the information and communication technology in research and industry. This project, IT Simply Works (ITSy), is an ongoing Support Action funded by the EU. In this work we decided to not focus only on a quest for an abstract definition of 1 IT Simply Works! (ITSy), a EU-funded FET Support Action (258058) within the 7th Framework Programme. See http://www.cs.unipotsdam.de/sse/ITSy/index.html simplicity, but rather set the goal of informing the development of principles based on evidence (i.e., by interviewing experts and surveying literature), where the results of applying these principles improves system quality by keeping things as simple as possible. Fundamentally, as the project name states, we wish systems that 'simply work'. While the project is still ongoing, there are already some prelimi...

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