The bulk of my work is to support colleagues who automate product tests which will be used in the production line. For example, I’m asked to extend one of our flash programming libraries to support a new device. I look up the library’s original target device’s manual, and the new device’s manual and find out how compatible they are. It turns out all three layers of the software stack need some work. Later this week I’ll sit down with the FPGA (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) Engineer and then with our Project Architect, to propose new software interfaces between the layers.
Another example is a Test Developer who came to me with a question: they received an error message while using one of our libraries, and don’t know what to do about it. Neither do I, so I look through the code to figure out what can trigger that message. I find the culprit, tell the user how to fix it, and add a task to our kanban board to improve the message so the next user doesn’t have to ask.
Our electronic test system provides independent hardware modules that are used to test and program products in our own production line. For the Test Developers we provide software and a set of standardized interfaces to talk to the ETS modules, which can be as granular as setting a specific signal to 1.6 volt, or as high-level as writing firmware to a flash chip. Together with the Test Development team, we ensure the reliability of these processes so the lights at the factory can stay off.