Interleaving Software Craftsmanship Practices in Medical Device Agile Development

Scaled Agile methodologies have revolutionized the way safety critical applications work. A majority of organizations have benefited from increased success rates in software development, improved quality and time to market while being compliant with regulations. However, one of the common pitfalls is a lack of focus on code quality in an urge to release software as quickly as possible. This paper highlights the transformation approach adopted by Philips HealthTech to improve code quality of its medical devices. It discusses how culmination of a series of actions related to Software Craftsmanship and Scaled Agile methodology helped in reducing release cycle time, increasing the number of features delivered and reducing field defects. Steps taken by a dedicated team, to enable businesses to focus on code quality hygiene and to assess the extent of improvements, are also discussed. Key take away from this paper is "Quality = Speed" i.e., driving agility and bringing in the needed cultural change in teams and organization.