About Author

Chad Jackson

Chad Jackson is an analyst, researcher and blogger providing insights on technologies used to enable engineers. He has surveyed thousands of engineering organizations.

Recent Articles

Hardware and Software Co-Exist Due to Model-Based Software Development

Hardware and Software Co-Exist Due to Model-Based Software Development As we discussed in the last post, more software is making its way into traditional mechanical products, and organizations need to find new and innovative ways to deliver quality products within strict time constraints. Software and electronics are taking over everyday items, from household products to cars. Many smart products need to process copious amounts of information in real-time. Generic computer processors aren’t cutting it anymore Read Article

Culture Shock: Agile and Individual Engineering Accountability

Culture Shock: Agile and Individual Accountability for Mechanical Engineering An engineer's prime responsibility has traditionally been to design products for form, fit, and function. It's worked just fine, or well enough, up to this point, right? Well, that depends on how you look at it. A substantial percentage of organizations today report missed deadlines, delayed projects, or canceled projects altogether. Products are changing, and this brings new challenges to the industry. They're becoming less mechanized and more Read Article

Implications of Embedded Software Everywhere

Embedded Software Is Everywhere: Potential Implications The amount of smart, connected products is increasing faster than ever. It was only very recently that IoT technology jumped from our phones and computers to our refrigerators, our lighting systems, and our vacuum cleaners. It's starting to seem like nothing is excluded from this extensive digital overhaul. In 2016, the smart home market was worth about $24 billion. By 2022, it's expected to reach $53 billion. Smart homes and robots are no longer Read Article

It's a Converging, Electromechanical World

It's a Converging, Electromechanical and Software World Software is eating the world. It’s making its way into traditional, mechanical products, thus forcing companies to rethink their design process. Products that have traditionally been mechanical are becoming jam-packed with software. This expansion of smart, connected products means new demands for engineers, and branching out into new fields. There is a need for a broader set of design skills among engineering staff and a need for more efficient Read Article

Agile for Hardware: Sprints and Working Prototypes

Agile for Hardware: Sprints and Working Prototypes Today, there is a plethora of changes emerging in product development. In these next few blog posts, we’ll focus on one of them: agile practices on hardware design. As traditional products become more complicated, many engineering firms have been adopting methods to increase productivity and streamline the development process. More software and electronic components are going into mechanical products than ever before, and efficiency is key to Read Article

Sometimes, You Can't Do it Alone

Sometimes, You Can't Do it Alone When it comes to design, most engineers do it alone. It's not that engineers are anti-social. That's a played out trope. It has more to do with the reality engineers can split up design work into independent finite chunks of work. Board development work, however, is changing. There more and more use cases where an engineer can't do their tasks in isolation. In this post, we'll explore a couple of those scenarios, look at the implications of using Read Article

Accessing Board Designs Downstream

Accessing Board Designs Downstream Why do downstream stakeholders need access to engineer’s designs? Engineering produces documentation for a reason. Right? Well, there are a few reasons others need access. Procurement agents share the board definition with suppliers so they can get an accurate quote. So they have to pass it along. Additionally, procurement agents make more informed decisions when they have access. Suppliers need board definitions for production. They use a Read Article

Board-and-Enclosure Collaboration in the Cloud

Board-and-Enclosure Collaboration in the Cloud Every day, technology has new ways to make our lives easier. It doesn’t seem like there’s anything smart devices can’t do, or won’t be able to do in the near future. However, as smart and connected devices become more helpful to the everyday user, they become increasingly complicated to make. Boards, wires, and all kinds of components are jam-packed into ambiguous spaces. Look under the hood of a new car, and you’ll find a whole lot more than was Read Article

Slashing the Spreadsheet: Moving the BOM to the Cloud

Slashing the Spreadsheet: Moving the BOM to the Cloud As today’s technology becomes more and more complex, the demand for devices that require electrical design is only going to increase, and the ability to deliver a quality product in a short amount of time is critical. Engineers are continually trying to find ways to shorten product development cycles and design components more efficiently. Plenty of opportunities to be more productive, both mechanical and electrical engineering, exist. One Read Article

Running on Any Device: Does It Matter?

Running on Any Device: Does It Matter? Does your device matter? That might seem like a strange question for a design post. However, it is increasingly becoming an important one. We’re in the midst of some pretty significant changes both technologically and culturally in engineering but also the workplace in general. So dig into this post. You might find it more relevant than you initially thought. This post looks at how engineering work is changing and the implications of ECAD running Read Article

Board Verification and Analysis: Comparing the Desktop and the Cloud

Board Verification and Analysis: Comparing the Desktop and the Cloud Respins are a killer. They’re costly, both from a time and money perspective. Run through two or three, and you’re very likely to miss design release. If you have long-lead time test facilities and equipment involved, you’re pretty much guaranteed to throw the entire development project off schedule. All that is why many engineering teams are increasingly turning to verification and analysis. If you can virtually check rules and simulate Read Article

Accessing New Components Faster: Can the Cloud Make a Difference?

Accessing New Components Faster: Can an ECAD Library Cloud Make a Difference? Let’s face it — components matter. We conducted some research in the middle of 2018 that focused on the role of simulation and verification in the development of board systems. In that survey-based study, we included a question about the issues that were making board design more challenging. One of the top responses was the pressure to incorporate new components into designs. That, of course, shouldn’t come as a surprise. Requirements for board Read Article

The Implications of Going Fileless

The Implications of Going Fileless A few weeks ago, we covered the general advantages of switching from a desktop-based environment to the cloud for collaboration. Emails can get lost. Attachments can be deleted or forgotten. Merging multiple changes is difficult. The cloud addresses all of those challenges in collaboration. Now, we talked a lot about files and the challenges that come with them in that post. Frankly, the issues in that post are relevant to almost any scenario Read Article

A Firewall or the Cloud: Which is More Secure?

A Firewall or the Cloud: Which is More Secure? If you’ve used the internet at all over the past few years, you’re probably aware of the ongoing cloud debate over security. Some say cloud-based solutions expose engineering intellectual property (IP) because it is outside the firewall. Some say that local software applications or on-premise are at more risk. After all, one of the biggest IP threats that a manufacturer faces is someone physically walking away with confidential information. So Read Article

How Does the Cloud Change the DFX Process?

How Does the Cloud Change the DFX PCB Design Process? Let’s face it: Engineers rarely design modern board systems on their own. However, it didn’t use to be that way. Not long ago, engineers primarily focused on form, fit, and function. Addressing those requirements was extremely difficult on its own. Constraints on cost, power, or part availability were secondary concerns. The prime directive was to get it to work. Fast forward to today, and the focus has flipped. It is a given that board systems Read Article

How Collaboration Changes with the Cloud

Cloud Collab Design: How Collaboration Changes with the Cloud In this series of posts, we’ll take a good, hard look at how Cloud solutions play into the design and development of board systems. That includes detailing use cases for procurement, manufacturing, quality, service, and many more. However, before we go down that path, we need to cover some basics. You see, there are some general-isms that apply in each of these use cases. We’ll detail them here and reference them there. So, what’s our general-ism Read Article

Are You Ready for the Cloud?

Are You Ready for the Cloud? Are you ready for the cloud? I know. I agree. I’m with you. We’ve heard that question way too many times already. Every time we turn around, one solution provider or another is making grand pronouncements about moving to the cloud and what it means for engineering. “It’s revolutionary,” they say. “It’ll save your business,” they say. “Companies without it will go out of business,” they say. Well, like many, I’m hyperbole-fatigued. I’m an industry Read Article