Behavior-driven Development for Real-time Embedded Systems

Embedded systems are a class of computer systems that are typically characterized by a tight interaction with the physical environment. Various methodologies have been adopted for the development of such systems, ranging from traditional waterfall to modern agile techniques. One of the agile techniques that has recently attracted increasing attention is Behavior-Driven Development (BDD). BDD promotes the engagement of all stakeholders in every development iteration to minimize the misunderstanding between technical and non-technical stakeholders and, consequently, to speed up the development process and lower the costs. In this paper, we investigate the application of BDD to the development of embedded systems, especially focusing on the testing of timing requirements for real-time embedded software. In particular, we extend BDD with time-related concepts and propose an approach to generate test code for the verification of timing behavior of real-time embedded systems. Our approach offers more automation for the development of test code compared to existing BDD tools, thus minimizing the risk of timing faults and reducing development costs and time-to-market.