Using Smalltalk in Medical Instruments
experience report
Hodges, Andy: Medtronic
Wednesday 9:15 am to 10 am
Abstract: Our group is using Smalltalk to develop software applications for use in medical instruments. These instruments are used by clinicians to interrogate and program pacemakers, defibrillators, and other implantable devices. This experience report will describe our basic system and how the Smalltalk software interfaces to other system components, how we have adapted several agile practices (test first design, automated unit testing, shared ownership, limited pair programming), and how we merge with traditional development processes to create artifacts required by the FDA (requirements spec, VT spec, test reports, etc.). We have been able to successfully incorporate Smalltalk technology into a highly regulated, high process environment. It has provided the flexibility and productivity increases that help reduce our product cycle times.
Bio: I have been developing software at Medtronic, Inc. for almost 15 years. For the last 5 years, I have been working in one of our Research organizations and have been almost exclusively programming in Smalltalk. Our software systems are used in research studies intended to collect the clinical data necessary for the delivery of the next generation device features and algorithms.
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