Field note
A bring-up week agenda that leaves room for the unexpected
How to structure the first lab days so power-on surprises do not erase the plan entirely.
Bring-up weeks fail in predictable ways: too many people hovering, no ordered smoke tests, and no parked list for issues that must wait. A written agenda will not eliminate surprises; it keeps surprises from deleting the sequence.
Day zero before power
Confirm firmware images are built for the actual BOM, programmers talk to the debug probe, and serial adapters are labeled. Photograph connector orientations. None of this is glamorous; all of it saves an hour when adrenaline rises.
Morning smoke, afternoon depth
Mornings prove life: rails, clocks, console, flash. Afternoons dig into one subsystem with a named investigator. Mixing both modes in the same hour produces neither proof nor depth.
Keep a parking lot
When a non-blocking defect appears, write it down with owner and revisit date. Parking lots prevent the loudest issue from capturing the entire week while quieter blockers age in silence.