1. Purpose of the gate
Feature complete means no new features from here, only fixes. The reason is practical: integration on the engineering prototypes is hard enough without software that is still changing in scope. If features keep arriving during integration, each failure could be the hardware, the new feature or an interaction between them, and bring-up slows down. This gate draws the line.
It is also the point at which the update design is settled. A system that will be updated in the field must ship with a secure update path from its first production release, because a device sold without one cannot be given one later. The secure update design reviewed here covers how updates are signed, delivered, checked, installed and rolled back.
The criteria are: all planned features implemented; automated tests running on every build; secure update design reviewed; and open high-severity defects tracked. Gating work products are the firmware images at updated maturity and the system software build at final maturity. Beside them, software test results start at initial maturity, product security issues the secure update design at final maturity, virtual prototyping issues software regression results on the model, and emulation and FPGA prototyping issues hardware and software co-verification results.
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