🏎️ Documenting my work experience at Ford

Dockerfile

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 # Expose Jekyll's default port
 EXPOSE 4000
 
-# Run Jekyll server with live reload and incremental builds
-CMD ["bundle", "exec", "jekyll", "serve", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--livereload", "--incremental", "--drafts"]
+# Run Jekyll server with live reload
+CMD ["bundle", "exec", "jekyll", "serve", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--drafts", "--force_polling"]

_layouts/work.html

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 <main>
     <header>
         <h2><a href="{% link work.html %}">Work/</a></h2>
-        <h1>{{ page.team }}</h1>
+        <h1>{{ page.title }}</h1>
         <time>{{ page.start_year }}—{{ page.end_year }}</time>
     </header>
     {{ content }}

_sass/main.scss

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     object-fit: scale-down;
 }
 
+figcaption {
+    text-align: center;
+    font-style: italic;
+}
+
 iframe {
     display: block;
     margin: 0 auto;

_work/2022-Ford-Architect.md

@@ -1,19 +1,166 @@
 ---
-title: Ford Model e
+title: Ford Connected Vehicle Software
 company: Ford
-team: Ford Model e
+team: Connected Vehicle
 role: Software Architect
 start_year: 2022
-end_year: Current
-description: Helping drive the automotive software revolution! Responsible for improving software quality through automation.
+end_year: 2026
+description: Managed a team that created automated test frameworks and traceability tools for vehicle software.
 icon: ford.svg
 ---
 
 I joined Ford in late 2022 to help with the effort to revolutionize how the company
-produces software!
+produces software. It was an amazing experience learning about the automotive industry
+and the unique software challenges of a real-time, safety critical, distributed systems
+environment.
 
-My team is involved with improving software quality through new automation investments.
+<figure>
+    <img src="/assets/images/work/2022-ford-electric-vehicles.jpg"
+        alt="Ford F-150 Lightning, E-Transit, Mustang Mach-E" />
+    <figcaption>
+        When I joined in 2022 Ford had just started shipping their new EV lineup with the
+        F-150 Lightning, Mustang Mach-E, and E-Transit.
+    </figcaption>
+</figure>
 
-More to come!
+# The Fully Networked Vehicle (FNV) Architecture
 
-![Ford F-150 Lightning, E-Transit, Mustang Mach-E](/assets/images/work/2022-ford-electric-vehicles.jpg)
+Ford started developing the Fully Networked Vehicle architecture in ~2017 in response to competitors
+like Tesla introducing vehicles that were designed to allow software to completely manage
+vehicle systems.
+
+A software-driven architecture is capable of receiving over-the-air updates to
+add functionality or address issues in the field, but also enables more advanced software features
+such as SAE Level 3+ autonomous driving that were beginning to become more commonplace across
+the industry.
+
+To help build the foundation for the Fully Networked Vehicle, Ford
+[quietly acquired a large number of BlackBerry staff and facilities in 2017](https://apnews.com/general-news-8b09b589c7ed45a7867a2aa577d58830),
+who quickly started cultivating a modern software development culture at Ford, and began
+building several core FNV modules:
+
+- Telematics Control Unit (TCU)
+- Enhanced Central Gateway Module (ECG)
+- Infotainment Module (SYNC)
+- Advanced Driver Assistance Module (ADAS)
+
+The 2021 Mustang Mach-E and F-150 were the first vehicles to ship with the new FNV2 architecture,
+allowing for over-the-air updates to be delivered to nearly every module in the vehicle, and
+eventually (with an update) providing Bluecruise hands-free self-driving.
+
+# My Role
+
+I joined Ford's testing organization, eventually re-branded to "Verification & Validation."
+
+My role was to help improve Ford's automated testing of software components by providing tools,
+frameworks, and guidance to the teams responsible for testing both in-house Ford software as
+well as software that delivered to Ford by suppliers.
+
+My team maintained a set of libraries and frameworks called "TAT" - "Test Automation Tools."
+TAT's lineage traces back to BlackBerry, and helps abstract away things like CAN bus,
+test environment configuration, logging, results reporting, etc. so that teams can focus
+on writing tests and diagnostics tools.
+
+Along with TAT, my team also managed the infrastructure that ran tests during pull requests,
+defending Ford's codebase against changes that would introduce defects. This involved maintaining
+a sizable lab of physical ECUs, and maintaining tooling that orchestrates the deployment
+and execution of tests for every pull request.
+
+A significant challenge for Ford is extending this style of fully automated testing to
+their HiL (hardware-in-the-loop) labs. HiL labs wire together larger systems of physical ECUs
+to simulate portions of a full vehicle in order to catch issues that may only occur in a system
+environment.
+
+Traditionally, the HiL labs relied mostly on manual or semi-automated testing, where test steps
+are documented in a test management system, and a human executes and verifies the result of
+each step. TAT, in combination with new AI-enabled test tooling, is being leveraged to help
+turn existing semi-manual test cases into fully automated test scripts that can be dynamically
+executed against standard HiL benches, similar to how pre-submit manages testing at the ECU level.
+
+My team also enhanced traceability at Ford, building a system that synchronized data from the
+various tools used for requirements, work tracking, release tracking, and test tracking.
+With one uniform data model, we could generate reports that traced requirements through
+implementation to test results, and determine the quality level of a particular software release,
+and whether we had sufficient test coverage of the original requirements.
+
+# My Experience in Photos
+
+I was fortunate enough to have Ford fly me to several of their offices across North America
+for an in-person introduction to my colleagues and the various development, manufacturing, and
+testing facilities. Here are some photos of those experiences!
+
+<figure>
+    <img src="/assets/images/work/2022-ford-lightning-frunkie.jpg"
+        alt="Me in the frunk of an F-150 Lightning" />
+    <figcaption>My first time seeing an F-150 Lightning and its enormous "frunk."</figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<figure>
+    <img src="/assets/images/work/2022-ford-world-hq.jpg" alt="Ford World Headquarters" />
+    <figcaption>
+        The view from my hotel of the iconic Ford World Headquarters building during
+        my very first trip to Dearborn.
+    </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<figure>
+    <img src="/assets/images/work/2022-ford-mexico-gtbc.jpg" alt="Ford GTBC Mexico" />
+    <figcaption>
+        The brand new Ford Global Technology and Business Center (GTBC) facility in Mexico City,
+        home to a large HiL (hardware-in-the-loop) testing lab and some stylish Pride Month stripes.
+        The building is enormous, extending far beyond the boundary of the photo.
+    </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<figure>
+    <img src="/assets/images/work/2022-ford-mach-e-assembly.jpg"
+        alt="Inside of a partially assembled Mustang Mach-E" />
+    <figcaption>
+        The inside of a partially assembled Mustang Mach-E during my tour of the Ford Cuautitlán
+        Stamping and Assembly Plant (CSAP).
+    </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<figure>
+    <img src="/assets/images/work/2022-ford-flashing-mach-e-in-garage.jpg"
+        alt="A Mach-E in my garage with the frunk disassembled" />
+    <figcaption>
+        Flashing new software onto a test vehicle in my garage, before Ford had officially
+        established an office in our region.
+    </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<figure>
+    <img src="/assets/images/work/2022-ford-test-equipment.jpg"
+        alt="Ford test benches and vehicle testing hardware in the Seattle office" />
+    <figcaption>
+        The first test benches and vehicle testing hardware arrive in the brand new Seattle office!
+    </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<figure>
+    <img src="/assets/images/work/2022-ford-buddys-pizza.jpg"
+        alt="A close-up of Buddy's Detroit-style pizza" />
+    <figcaption>
+        I was introduced to Detroit-style pizza at Buddy's in Dearborn. Delicious!
+    </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<figure>
+    <img src="/assets/images/work/2022-ford-ottawa-poutine.jpg"
+        alt="An Ottawa Senators hockey game with poutine in my hand" />
+    <figcaption>
+        Pretending I'm Canadian during my visit to the Ottawa office by watching an Ottawa Senators
+        hockey game while enjoying some poutine.
+    </figcaption>
+</figure>
+
+<figure>
+    <img src="/assets/images/work/2022-ford-mach-e-rally.jpg"
+        alt="A bright yellow Mustang Mach-E Rally" />
+    <figcaption>
+        The craziest car I've ever had the privilege to drive: A "grabber yellow" Mustang Mach-E
+        Rally edition. The Ford Management Lease program allowed me to drive a fancy new Ford
+        vehicle every year.
+    </figcaption>
+</figure>