Progress bars are something that most people see everyday and have varying levels of quality. Some progress bars are just mere animations such as a spinning wheel or the word loading followed by an animated ellipsis and they provide no information on how much time remains or in some cases whether progress has halted completely. Even the best progress bars seem to move at an irregular pace as some tasks occur faster or slower than the originally conceived estimate or when the operating system changes the amount of allocated resources during the middle of a task.

Even on an embedded system with a bare metal operating system that is performing one linear sequence of tasks, an accurate progress bar involves estimating or calculating the amount of time that will be spent on each and every task before any of the tasks are started so that the percentage of progress can be determined and displayed for the user. Whether measured during testing or estimated, a detailed understanding of the device and its capabilities is necessary to develop an accurate progress bar.

The skill of developing an accurate progress bar doesn’t stop at firmware and software development either. Managing any engineering project involves many of the same skills. How long will it take to develop a product, circuit, or software feature? What tasks stand between the starting line and the finish line? What is the availability of project resources to complete these tasks? Are resources equally capable or are they specialized to specific tasks? Answering these questions is necessary to making a usable gantt chart, project budget, and development plan. CEPD has experience with progress bars both as a software feature and as project estimate. Contact us today to start your next project.

References:

Why Progress Bars Don't Move Smoothly ▓▓▓░░░░░░: a Youtube video by Tom Scott on March 1^st, 2021

The Pain of Waiting — Navigating the 7 Levels of Progress Indicator Hell: an article by Mike Zetlow on freeCodeCamp on December 26^th, 2017

Ask Slashdot: Why Is It So Hard To Make An Accurate Progress Bar?: a thread on Slashdot posted on February 12^th, 2013

Relevant XKCD Comic xkcd: Estimation

The Basics of Industrial Safety Control Systems by Doug Barlett

In this presentation, I will share what I have learned about industrial safety control systems while working as a consultant on the UV-Concepts, Inc. UVEnclosure disinfection system. Protecting personnel from injury is a fundamental requirement of many industrial systems. Redundant, self-checking safety systems that do not depend on computer controls are key to addressing these requirements. The UVEnclosure will serve as an example of the technologies and methods used in these systems.