InHand Electronics :: Methodology

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Methodology

Consulting

Hardware Design

Software Development

Mechanical Engineering

New Technology

InHand employs enhanced industry-standard methodologies to deliver professional engineering services. Our processes help us deliver high-quality solutions that enable you to get your device to market faster and with lower risk.

InHand’s staff brings over 100 man-years of experience to total project management and system integration. Our in-depth knowledge, coupled with a continued look at emerging technologies, enables us to help a customer early in the project cycle, establish a balanced development schedule trading risk, resources, and time against scope and cost. Every project begins with a thorough evaluation of project requirements and goals to create a clear understanding through scheduled deliverables of the project tasks and milestones. At this stage, InHand may work with the customer to redefine the project scope to create a deliverable with the best likelihood of achieving the customer’s goals.

Once the project is underway, InHand assigns an experienced project manager and a pool of highly skilled resources encompassing hardware, software, and mechanical engineering, as necessary, to ensure timely project completion. Together, we design and develop your system to meet your requirements, leveraging InHand's extensive industry expertise, catalog of intellectual property and products, and supported 3rd party peripherals. Our experts thoroughly test and evaluate your product to ensure it meets our quality standards.

Generally, each custom development project consists of the following phases:

Phase 1- Requirements Analysis
Phase 2- Scheduling
Phase 3- Design & Development
Phase 4- Testing
Phase 5- Field Evaluation
Phase 6- Production/Licensing
Phase 7- Support

Phase 1- Requirements Analysis

Working with you, InHand thoroughly reviews your project goals and timelines. Based on a cooperative effort, InHand’s system integration team makes sure that the planned project incorporates your project goals in an optimal fashion. This phase may result in a redefinition of project requirements to best fit goals, schedule, and resources

This phase generally includes:

Evaluating project requirements
Reviewing design approach
Discussing system design trade-offs
Identifying potential design vulnerabilities
If necessary, researching new technologies

Phase 2- Scheduling

Once the requirements phase is complete, InHand assigns a project manager and creates a project plan including a timeline with milestones and deliverables. We then assign engineering staff to your project to work to the stated schedule. This team will work with you throughout the project to facilitate a smooth transition through every design phase and will work intimately with your staff to help avoid project delays.

Phase 3- Design & Development

With the project scheduled and resources assigned, InHand's experienced team will work to create your custom design quickly and efficiently. Depending on the specifics of your project, your team will have access to our final schematics, BOM, and vendor lists. Regular meetings/conference calls will keep the information flow current and make sure everyone is up-to-date.

Tasks during this phase include:

Manage and communicate project schedule
Manage software and hardware builds
Meet deliverable schedule

Phase 4- Testing

The testing phase usually involves components of both hardware and software, and includes both intermediate and final evaluations. For software, our process roughly models the IEEE 829 standard for testing.

1. Preparation Of Tests
Test Plan: Plan how the testing will proceed.
Test Design Specification: Decide what needs to be tested.
Test Case Specification: Create the tests to be run.
Test Procedure: Describe how the tests are run.
Test Item Transmittal Report: Specify the items released for testing.

2. Running The Tests
Test Log: Record the details of tests
Test Incident Report: Record details of events that need to be investigated.

3. Completion of Testing
Test Summary Report: Summarize and evaluate tests.
Documentation For Preparation Of Tests
The preparation for testing is the most important part of any software testing project and easily accounts for most of the paper work. The purpose this stage is to prepare an effective and efficient set of tests, and create the environment for them to run in.

The Test Plan is the pivotal document around which all the software testing projects revolve. It describes what has to be done, to what quality standard, with what resource, to what time scale, and outlines the risks and how they would be overcome.

Phase 5- Field Evaluation

The field evaluation phase may or may not be part of InHand’s tasks. The customer may choose to perform this phase or share in an agreed-to path for final evaluation and acceptance.

Phase 6- Production/Licensing

In lower volumes, including prototyping, InHand will deliver a finished board or packaged unit with software directly to you. In higher volumes, the option exists to have product drop-shipped directly from our contract manufacturer to you – or your customer. Alternatively InHand’s custom designs support provisions for intellectual property licensing, thus allowing you to take over manufacture.

Phase 7- Support

As part of every project, InHand includes extended support for the duration and a period following the completion of the project. InHand believes it is key to provide access to the development team to help the customer transition the product from InHand’s staff to the customer.

We can also craft custom support and sustaining engineering plans that are suited to your unique needs.