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Requirements engineering is an important part of the software development process. There are various challenges associated with the elicitation, analysis, documentation, and validation of requirements, and these challenges can be more pronounced in embedded software systems, where a number of characteristics, unique to these systems, must be addressed. This paper will examine the unique concerns surrounding the requirements engineering of embedded software systems, including the need to elicit, specify, and validate, interrupts and exceptions, concurrency, and timing. We will then survey and examine some of the current requirements engineering research that can address these concerns. Finally, we will consider whether some of the requirements engineering concerns and practices conceived for, and utilized in the Information Technology (IT) domain, can be beneficial to the development of embedded systems.

Electronic control units (ECUs) offer a modular, networked approach to real time machine control and diagnostics. Software embedded in these controllers offer agile and customizable solutions because of the intimate relationship with the ECU hardware and its inputs/outputs. In an idealistic view, embedded software should support the machine's life - 30 years or longer. Developing and maintaining software for these systems requires a strategy. A framework demonstrating common building blocks and long-term centralized support for ECUs on a machine is presented. This strategy reduces the detailed knowledge of the specific machine controls needed by ECU developers and provides the components and infrastructure key to extending the life and functionality of the ECU.