Top > Press Releases > Back Issues > May 2008
Since 2004 the Ministry of Economy, Trade and
Industry (METI) has been conducting annual surveys of companies
and engineers engaged in the embedded software business, with
the aim of identifying the current state of this rapidly growing
industry. Embedded software refers to software that is embedded
in vehicles, mobile telephones and many other devices.
The results revealed emerging problems, such as the polarization
of embedded software in quality and shortages of highly skilled
engineers, but they also indicate that practical activities that
METI and IPA’s Software Engineering Center (SEC) have been
jointly promoting in the field of software engineering are
yielding results.
A summary of the Embedded Software Industry Survey
Methodology
From November 2007 to January 2008, a questionnaire survey was
conducted for executives, business leaders, embedded software
development projects leaders and embedded software engineers of
approximately 7,500 companies that belong to industry groups or
associations related to embedded software. Valid responses were
returned from 317 business units (of 291 companies), 519
projects, 1,015 embedded software engineers (including 153
respondents at Embedded Technology 2007 (ET2007)).
Results
(1) The embedded software industry is continuously growing.
The size of the Japanese embedded software development industry
increased to approximately \3,510 billion, up 7.5% from the
previous year.
(2) Quality problems associated with embedded software: The
number of these
who answered “none” increased, while the number of those saying “30% or more”
fell for the first time.
One question asked about products that caused quality problems
after shipment was asked. Those who answered “none” increased by
about five times, from 7.3% to 33.5%, over the past four years,
suggesting a rapid increase in the supply of high-quality
products. On the other hand, the percentage of companies that
experienced quality problems in or before last year with more
than 30% of their products increased for three consecutive
years. The figure was 22.5% in the 2008 survey, which is about
20% lower than the 2007 figure of 26.8%. This was the first
decline since the start of the survey. The percentage of
companies that experienced quality problems with 20-30% of their
products also fell from 15.3% to 12.8%.
(3) The average number of faults per product varies widely by
company size.
The average number of faults per product was analyzed by company
size. The number was 0.33 in companies with 5,000 or more
employees, and 0.58 in those with 1,001-5,000 employees, while
the equivalent number was 1.62 in companies with 301-1,000
employees, 1.07 in those with 101-300 employees, 0.61 in those
with 100 or less. The disparity in the average number of faults
between large and small companies is assumed to contribute
partly to the polarization of quality.
(4) Over 40% of the quality problems with embedded products
after shipment are caused by software errors.
The leading cause of the quality problems with embedded products
after shipment was software errors (46.3%), followed by hardware
design faults (21.8%) and production faults (12.7%). A trend
over the past four years is that the percentage of faults during
product conceptualization and specification continues to fall
year after year. Software errors have remained the major cause of
quality problems for the past four years.
(5) The shortage of engineers is easing.
The average shortage rate*1 has fallen for two consecutive years,
from a peak of 48.6% in 2006 to 36.4%. The shortage rate by
profession*2 is the highest in three categories: product
managers (64.9%), QA specialists (55.1%), and development
environment engineers (50.7%). Professions with relatively low
shortage rates are test engineers (29.0%) and software engineers
(25.9%). Over the three years since 2006, the shortage rate of
product managers, the profession with the highest shortage rate
in the 2008 survey, has increased the most in all the
professional categories (from 61.2% to 64.9%). The shortage rate
of bridge system engineers, the category with the highest
shortage rate in 2006, was reduced the most (from 116% to 48.7%)
during the same period. The profession that showed the second
largest drop after this was test engineers (from 66.7 to 29.0%).
*1: Shortage rate: The value obtained by performing the
following calculation, based on the survey results on executives
and business leaders:
Total shortage of engineers in number / Current total number of
engineers
*2: Professions
• Product managers: Managers who oversee the product life cycle,
including product conceptualization, development, manufacturing,
distribution, marketing and maintenance, from the viewpoint of
management.
• Project managers: Managers who plan, lead and supervise a
product development project in the process of its designing and
implementation.
• Systems architects: Engineers who design system architectures
and their development processes in a way that the requirements
for system use and development are met.
• Software engineers: Engineers who design and construct
software.
• Test engineers: Engineers who design and perform tests.
• Domain specialists: Specialized engineers who have advanced
and specialized knowledge and development experience in a
specific technology or product field.
• QA specialists: Specialized engineers who foster the
assurance, maintenance and improvement of quality across all the
processes of a project.
• Development process improvement specialists: Specialized
engineers who assess the development process and its
implementation status and promote improvements.
• Development environment engineers: Engineers who design,
construct and operate the development environment for a project,
including tools and equipment to be used there.
• Bridge system engineers: Engineers who coordinate
organizationally and geographically dispersed teams that
participate in a project.
(6) Advanced*3 embedded software engineers are needed.
Although overall shortages are easing, demand is still high for
embedded software engineers with advanced skills; the shortage
rate of entry-level engineers was 26.3%, while that of advanced
(experienced) engineers was 48.4%. Over the three years from
2006, the shortage rate of entry-level engineers fell from 44.2%
to 26.3%, showing the largest decline among all the categories.
The shortage rate of advanced engineers stood out last year at
64.9%, but the rate declined this year, making the disparity
between different skill levels restored to an extent equivalent
to that of two years ago.
*3: Advanced: Capable of implementing technologies,
methodologies and businesses while exercising leadership or
capable of implementing these while leading internal and
external teams by means of standardization and the development
of new technologies.
Intermediate: Capable of discovering and solving challenges in
business operations while exercising leadership.
Entry-level: Capable of discovering and solving challenges in
business operations under the leadership of higher-level
engineers.
(7) Software engineering methods have been introduced for
improving quality and developing human resources.
The respondents’ most common reason for having adopted
solutions*4 developed and provided by the Software Engineering
Center*5 was “quality improvement” (cited by more than 75%),
followed by “human resource development” (more than 60%). This
suggests that many respondents recognize SEC’s solutions as
effective for solving major challenges in developing embedded
software. About 70% of those who have adopted SEC’s solutions
give high marks to them, rating them as being “beyond
expectations” or “just as expected.”
*4: Embedded Technology Skill Standards (ETSS), Embedded System
Development Coding Reference (ESCR), Embedded System Development
Process Reference (ESPR), Embedded System Development Management
Reference (ESMR)
*5: Established in 2004 under the Information-Technology
Promotion Agency, Japan (IPA) and headed by Seishiro Tsuruho.
Division in Charge
Information Services Industry Division, Commerce and Information Policy Bureau
Release Date
May 22, 2008
