Smart Scale Gets Smarter

Internet of Things (IoT) Connectivity Leveraged to Integrate New Device with Existing Wearable Fitness Device

Consumer electronics and fitness company struggling to develop second generation wireless smart scale with IoT connectivity.

MedAcuity established an Agile SCRUM process for the development effort to improve efficiency, make up lost time, and ensure high quality, safe, reliable software.

Smart Scale Inset Image

project snapshot

SITUATION


  • Internal engineering management, juggling competing development priorities, lacked needed expertise and engineering competencies for this development effort
  • Distributed teams working all around the world using different processes and lacking sufficient communication tools contributed to false starts and project delays
  • New product would deliver an electrophysiological signal to and from the user, making it a medical device requiring FDA approval

Challenges


  • Distributed multi-disciplinary development team (mobile app, cloud services, security, and manufacturing) operating with their own agendas and priorities led to false starts, restarts, and delays
  • Selected hardware and software libraries were either documented incorrectly or completely undocumented, creating extensive trial and error feature testing
  • New chipset and API lacked support from manufacturer
  • Insufficient understanding of FDA regulations for medical device development

SOLUTION


  • MedAcuity identified cross-team dependencies and introduced Agile SCRUM process methodology to improve efficiency and unify the various development teams
  • Close collaboration with manufacturing team and manufacturer directly conveyed must-have product features and ensured they would perform as required
  • MedAcuity engineers provided proven expertise in developing safe, secure, reliable software for highly regulated MedTech industry to assure new product would meet FDA regulations

Results


  • Introduction of Agile Scrum process resulted in better team collaboration and a truly unified development effort that made up lost time and got the project back on track
  • Accelerated time to market