Cost impacts of real-time non-intrusive (RTNI) monitoring technology to real-time embedded systems

The use of RTNI monitoring has had an impact on life cycle costs of existing programs through a reduction in debug time. Other areas in which RTNI monitoring can provide potential benefits to future programs are through the use of increased dynamic testing and the sharing of test time among more engineers. There are a number of areas in which software life cycle costs are impacted by various cost drivers. To determine which areas were affected by the use of RTNI monitoring, a panel of expert users of RTNI monitoring was created using a form of the Nominal Group Technique methodology to achieve group consensus. The group concluded that the areas described above were most important to their programs. However, merely using RTNI monitoring alone may not have an impact on future programs; management commitment to integrate RTNI monitoring into test programs is also necessary for success.