Best Practices for Quality
To arrive at high quality electronics projects many things are important. Some of these are described in a formal way in other places, while others things are more seen as best practices that are more like part of a 'culture'. This page aims to capture these "best practices for quality" used by CERN's BE-CEM-EDL section.
Some of these best practices seem of minor importance but are in fact not;
they may well be one of the keys to making successful Open Hardware
projects!
- Slideshow Best Practices presents the same information.
Projects
Planning
Good planning helps to set the right priority on tasks and is primordial to keep the workload under control.
- Any new work that comes in and that will take longer than two days should be discussed and planned in the section meeting or in a dedicated meeting and agreed by the section leader.
- Hold a global planning meeting every six months where major milestones and projects of the design team are decided.
See also
Documentation
Each project should have all of its documentation available from one
place. This increases re-use and feedback.
Good documentation reduces the workload and shows a professional image
of the project.
- Every project, even very small, needs a project on ohwr.org
(default) or on the company internal wikis (only if very company
specific, should be exceptional).
- Sections: Project description, an image, Specification, Project information, Contacts, Status
- The Status on the project page should be up-to-date. It should be maximum two months behind reality. Active projects should have an entry at least every 6 months.
- Any problem or suggestion given by users should be documented in an Issue. From there it can be documented and discussed when and how to handle.
- Questions asked should be answered by pointers to manuals and FAQs.
- If this is not possible, it is an indicator that the documentation is not complete.
- If needed, create a FAQ or an Issue before answering.
- Presentations: add a link to each presentation that has been given.
- Design reviews: present the full results of design reviews and the resulting actions that have been taken.
- Code (testing, debugging) and other important documentation: store in a public place, never in a ~user directory, not even in a ~user/public one.
See also
Review
Reviewing makes the final product better.
- Each step in the progress of a project needs a review, starting from the requirements specification.
See also
- Schematics design reviews and in general the Electronics Design project on ohwr.org.
- Hardware development procedure on CERN wikis (CERN only)
Handling of electronics
Careful handling of electronics boards reduces unforeseen problems and therefore cost and image problems.
Electronics
- Always handle cards with ESD precaution (ground oneself, use
grounded workplace, etc.).
- Notably for prototypes as they may end up in an operational system while being manipulated a lot.
- All unused (unplugged) cards should be protected with an ESD bag and stored in an appropriate place (i.e., not on an office desk or lab desk).
- Never put assembled cards directly on top of each other without protection (use at least an ESD bag and preferable also store separately in a box).
- Inform colleagues about the above when they return boards without ESD bags.
Fibre optics
- Clean fibres and SFP before using them with special tool.
- Inspect fibres and SFP with the dedicated microscope.
See also
Erik van der Bij - 27 January 2022