In embedded software development, performance and innovation depend not only on hardware or technical solutions but also on the developers’ environment and smooth processes. As toolchains, architectures, and safety and security requirements grow increasingly complex, efficiency becomes a key competitive factor. Developer Experience Platforms (DXPs) provide the foundation for this by integrating tools, automating processes, interconnecting teams, and supporting scalable environments for development, build, and testing. This allows development teams to focus on what truly matters: developing secure, high-quality embedded systems in less time.
A Developer Experience Platform is an integrated software platform that supports the entire product lifecycle with a focus on development and quality assurance – from project and environment setup through the processes of documentation, implementation, build and testing to releases and roll-outs. Additionally, it covers maintenance through software updates or even the fleet management of IoT devices. A DX platform bundles tools, processes, and automation into a consistent interface at a central place.
The goal is to relieve developers and testers of repetitive tasks, accelerate project start-ups, automate IT resource provisioning, and enable seamless collaboration. This all increases the efficiency and performance of development.
There is the most significant added value, particularly in embedded development, which often involves specialized toolchains, various hardware setups, and high quality requirements: A DX platform brings convenience, transparency, automation, and reusability of toolchains, environments and solutions to a fragmented environment with many different local solutions.
An increasingly important aspect is the easy integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into developer experience platforms and development environments. AI-supported analysis can, for example, identify error causes more quickly, optimize test coverage, or suggest corrections. AI also opens up new opportunities in requirements engineering or in the generation of code, tests, and, above all, documentation to automate repetitive tasks and thus increase developer productivity.
Project setup example
DX Platforms enable automated builds, containerisation, and consistent development and test environments. This reduces manual effort and accelerates development and test cycles.
Using self-service features, developers can provision and configure build and test environments, virtual hardware or test devices, and project management tools themselves, without long wait times with IT.
Integrated guardrails, quality gates, policies, and automated security checks ensure that safety and security requirements are considered from the start.
Tests are not only run on the hardware at the end, but also early on in simulation and on HIL systems and automated through CI/CD.
Standardised workflows and individual templates make it easy to transfer successful setups to new projects – regardless of whether a small embedded module or a complex multi-core system with different operating systems is being developed.
A central platform standardises workflows and improves the flow of information and knowledge sharing across teams – whether hardware development, software development, testing, production, or support. This increases transparency and reduces friction.
Find out more about the setup of your Developer Experience Platform!