It's Just a Jump to the Left, Right? Shift Left in IC Design Enablement

By Michael White, David Abercrombie, and John Ferguson (Siemens EDA)
EETimes (July 18, 2023)

“Shift left for Architects…”

“What is shift left security?…”

“Adopting a shift left culture…”

Search the term “shift left” and you’ll see dozens of articles discussing the definition of shift left, how shift left can improve operations and results in a variety of industries, or even why shift left doesn’t work. Clearly it’s a topic of much discussion, and many companies are actively working towards implementing shift left principles and practices…or so they think. But a successful shift left strategy contains many components—ignoring even one of them reduces the chance of achieving the gains you’re expecting to see.

Larry Smith, a software engineer, is credited with coining the phrase “shift left” back in 2001, in an article focusing on improving the flow between software development and quality assurance testing¹. He asserted that, to improve the overall software development process, teams needed to develop test cases earlier, perform testing earlier, and automate testing as much as possible. His conclusion, “Bugs are cheap when caught young,” encapsulates the concept and value of the shift left approach.

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