Enjoying a Beautiful View of.. a Hardware Abstraction Layer: Qorvo Garners National Instruments Prestigious LabVIEW Center of Excellence Certification
...sun setting over the Rocky Mountains near Lone Tree Colorado

Enjoying a Beautiful View of.. a Hardware Abstraction Layer: Qorvo Garners National Instruments Prestigious LabVIEW Center of Excellence Certification

Yes, you read that correctly… enjoying a beautiful hardware abstraction layer (HAL), not a beautiful view of the mountains. I live in Colorado and experience many amazing mountain sunsets – gorgeous. I am also a technologist and greatly appreciate beautiful code and elegant technology. Technology is more than bits and bytes and figuring out how things work. As an engineer progresses in his career, becoming a master at his craft, he often becomes an “artist” as well, designing architectures, processes and user interfaces. There is no perfect answer for the design, it really is “art.”  The difference for the classical artist and the technologist is simply the medium. The classical artist uses color, clay, etc… the medium for the technologist, is the technology.

Consider the team that released the first Macintosh computer. This was a team of artists and technology was their medium.

In my role as the LabVIEW Center of Excellence (www.ni.com/labviewcoe) program manager, I spend time with artists in the world of LabVIEW software. Each team faces unique challenges to surmount and I am constantly learning from them and impressed by their creations. The Center of Excellence program provides a framework for engineers to improve software engineering processes, architecture and design. Teams that meet the 60+ requirements can opt to sit for an audit and become an official “Certified Center of Excellence”


I recently met with the rockstar-artists from the IDP Test Engineering group at Qorvo. (Qorvo provides innovative and high-performance RF solutions for advanced wireless devices, defense radar and communications: www.qorvo.com). Andy Fenley and Orlando Garcia lead the software development that enables over 80 engineers to be efficient in testing products. Our agenda was conducting the CoE audit so we dove into myriad aspects of their software engineering processes and conducted an architecture review. Led by Tee Jay Phelps, this team embarked on this significant process improvement adventure several years ago.



Wow! All aspects of the software process, UI design, and architecture were elegant and sophisticated, yet simple (not an easy task!). Andy astutely knows that “code lives forever.” The team “designs first” and the result is very readable code that also manages the very complex component testing. Andy and Orlando approached the UI design with intentionality, ensuing an excellent user experience for their customers. The framework even includes an option for bug reporting. The Hardware Abstraction Layer really is gorgeous! It is designed for seamless integration into the broader framework while also enabling any other LabVIEW developer at Qorvo to reuse the code. And when it comes to process, Andy and Orlando have streamlined essential tasks while avoiding unnecessary steps and complications that would slow down process. And as a special bonus for his team, Andy brings a little humor into all of his process documents. Yes, you will laugh when you review the Qorvo LabVIEW coding style guidelines!

Congrats to Qorvo - IDP Test Engineering! You are the 9th Certified Center of Excellence globally, 5th in the US and first in Texas!

Speaking of Texas, for those of you who are attending NIWeek 2018, come learn from Andy Fenley during his session:

“Getting XControl Functionality with Dynamically Configured Views and DQMH” Thursday, May 24th 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. at Meeting Room 16A (Part of the Software Engineering Processes, Architecture and Design- SEPAD- Track)

On a final note, this group’s work is not done now that they are certified. In our meeting, Senior Test Engineering Manager Neil Craig reminded us all that his team is on a journey of continually advancing their tools and software as they empower fellow engineers and technicians at Qorvo. Being awarded the Center of Excellence Certification is one milestone on that journey – an exciting one indeed.

Neil Craig

Chief Scientist II, BAE Systems Inc.

5y

Very well written Nancy. Thanks so much.

Michael Heineman

Prized Business Development Strategist | Director of Business Development

5y

Wow. Congrats!

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