Semiconductor Development with Jama Connect Guide

Jama Connect for Semiconductors provides a purpose-built solution for managing requirements, traceability, and engineering governance across the semiconductor product lifecycle.

This scalable framework is designed to meet the unique needs of semiconductor teams, enabling faster adoption and seamless integration into your development processes.

Watch our vlog to listen to Jama Software’s Neil Stroud – General Manager, Automotive & Semiconductor, and Steve Rush – Principal Solutions Consultant, discuss how semiconductor teams can streamline development and improve collaboration with Jama Connect for Semiconductors, which includes:

Templates tailored to semiconductor use cases, from MRD management to post-silicon validation
Comprehensive procedure and configuration guides
Best practices for IP reuse and traceability
Integration resources for tools like Jira and pre-silicon testing platforms

Transform your semiconductor development process with Jama Connect and drive innovation with confidence.

Jama Connect for Semiconductors: Simplify Complexity, Accelerate Innovation

Neil Stroud: Hi. My name is Neil Stroud. I’m General Manager of our semiconductor business unit, and I’m joined here by Steve.

Steve Rush: Hi there. I’m Steve Rush, Principal Solutions Consultant on our semiconductor team. Happy to be here today.

Stroud: Hey, Steve. So we’ve got some exciting news to introduce to you today. But before we get into that, I wanted to introduce some context. So, Jama Connect has pretty much become the de facto standard across the whole semiconductor industry. And when we look at that industry, obviously, that’s made up of a number of subsegments such as IP vendors, fabless semiconductor, foundry, EDA tools, and we cover the whole gamut of the ecosystem.

We’ve been helping customers for a long time, managing that complexity, not only with the semiconductor side of the development, but also we see increasingly where the software stack is part and parcel of the whole solution that the semiconductor ecosystem provides. So there are many aspects to it. Of course, compliance is a key part as we see products go into things like safety and security solutions.

So we’re driving that acceleration, that innovation, that time to market, that improved quality. So we’ve been doing this for a while. We’ve gotten to understand the problems intimately. Steve, maybe you can comment. What have you learned from engaging with these semiconductor customers?

Rush: Their challenges are complex. Their products are mind-bogglingly complex. I hear a lot of consistent challenges through the industry around traceability, engineering governance, and how they can create a consistent data model to work against.

Reuse is a huge aspect of what they do. How do I reuse my existing IP in a different context or customization that I am working on with my customers? And, frankly, Jama Connect is really well aligned to solve some of these problems. But speaking semiconductor language, meeting our customers where they are, how you actually perform this and do this in Jama Connect, has always been sort of a bit of a mystery. And we’re excited about this new semiconductor solution that we’re gonna talk about today, sort of unpack a little bit about that, and speak more semiconductor language, tune these to the solutions that this, you know, wide-ranging industry is looking for.

Stroud: Yeah. Excellent. And I just wanna pick up on a phrase that you used there that’s near and dear to my heart. You mentioned engineering governance, and I think we’re kind of at an inflection point, it feels, from the various conversations we’re having with our customers who are using Jama Connect today, but also customers who are thinking about using it. This whole concept of engineering governance and, you know, trying to get oversight and control over the whole engineering organization, which typically, historically, has been, you know, hardware and software as two independent domains.

This whole concept of engineering governance, where you can unify those two worlds, which, let’s face it, are very different. You know, we’ve got semiconductor hardware development that typically is more classical waterfall v model versus software, which is Agile, you know, CICD, going at a hundred miles an hour kind of thing. So, maybe you can just comment a little bit more about that engineering governance and how Jama Connect has a role to play there.

RELATED: SUSS Chooses Jama Connect to Support a New Standardized Development Process for Semiconductor Equipment and Solutions

Rush: Yeah. I mean, the intersection of hardware and software, we see that across many industries. But I would say semiconductor, probably more than any other industry that I’ve worked with, relies so much on institutional knowledge that that probably is keeping, you know, their C-Suite and the managers sort of up at night that they’re so reliant on existing knowledge and how that knowledge sort of transfers from people to people and from team to team is just a huge challenge. And I think part of what this solution and Jama Connect bring to bear is that it creates more transparency and accountability, helps you identify risks early on in the process to allow you to sort of shift left in that process to sort of get those requirements right before you have to figure out you need to change, like, much further down the stream.

They’re looking for something more lightweight that users can adopt. The way that they work is not ultimately gonna change, but it’s gonna improve.

So by shifting the way that we think about requirements and engineering data and putting that into a very configurable model that can create consistency, and we talk about sort of, like, common enough in a lot of our blogs and frameworks. We want a common enough framework that people can work against, that’s unified, that we can report against, but still allow teams sort of have that autonomy to make tweaks and customizations for their particular use cases. And I think Jama Connect really strikes that balance, and this solution in particular does that.

Stroud: Great. And that’s a great segue into the big news. What are we announcing today?

Rush: We are very excited to announce a brand new semiconductor solution for Jama Connect. So what this solution is is a brand new set of templates, more agnostic in terms of use case. Honoring systems engineering but tuning these templates to really common semiconductor use cases for your EDA companies, your IDM companies, the way that they think and see the world, really, those customers need a way and a perspective to visualize how they might set their data up in Jama Connect, and we’re giving them that new great starting point. So this new solution, including these new templates, is something that we’re really excited about. There’s an exhaustive procedure guide that explains how to work in Jama Connect from high-level MRD all the way down to post-silicon validation, including some aspects.

Stroud: So, how do I reuse IP cores across different IT blocks that I’m managing? What does that look like exactly? How do I manage that? What does good look like in Jama Connect?

Rush: We provide all of these examples and a rich set of resources for our customers to use and get a quicker and shorter time to value of their Jama Connect implementation. So we’re really excited about it.

Stroud: It sounds really exciting. So we touched a little bit earlier on the various subsegments within the semiconductor industry. So I’m assuming this solution is relevant regardless of where you sit in that supply chain. Is that true?

Rush: Yeah. You know, there are a couple of elements to it that are tuned to, like, EDA, IDM. They think of the IP block or IP core use case as really relevant to them. But also sort of, like, stepping back, if you’re just working on an alarm system for a machine that’s developing sort of the wafers for the the dye or a photolithography machine where you’re just generally sort of, you know, visualizing the product that you build in more of a systems capability, this is a really great starting point for all of those use cases. And then we can sort of tune it from there. EEA and IDM specifically, they have some unique aspects to it, so we give you a little bit of a preview. But Jama Connect, you know, right from the get-go, if I’m one of these other segments in sort of the manufacturing or fabrication space, I can just make a copy of this project, remove a couple of elements, and start working on day one.

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Stroud: So it’s really scalable as well for those, as you say, IDM is a great example where they’re covering effectively multiple subsegments. It sounds like it was across those subsegments for them as well. So excellent.

So I think I understand the value to the engineer, you know, that it helps me to go faster. It helps me get up and running much quicker. I’m sure there’s more to it than that. But also, you know, what the relevance to the C-suite, you know, from a high-level perspective? Maybe you can talk about those two different personas and the value of each of those.

Rush: Sure. There’s quite a lot of crossover, but I would say, if I’m in the C-suite, I would identify risks earlier on in the process. So by giving you a consistent data model and some views of, like, what good looks like, we have some great views of really built-out sample data, using the rich traceability that’s part of these to give you a sort of at-a-glance view. What does a good Trace Score™ look like? What does a good Trace Score for a particular component mean? How do I identify risks where I have gaps in coverage?

I think those are gonna be really interesting to the C-suite as well as this framework. So getting everybody working in sort of a consistent, repeatable way, which then becomes reportable and can, you know, increase transparency for that C-suite to see sort of how exactly we are tracking, what the status of our marketing requirements is, how much testing we’ve done on our technical requirements or systems. At a glance, they can get into Jama Connect, see a couple of dashboard examples, and visualize right away how they can answer some of these really important questions.

Stroud: And then at the engineering level?

Rush: Yeah. I mean, a lot of people are just wondering how I get my job done within Jama Connect, and I think the procedure guide is just a perfect example. So if I am the owner of the MRD, you know, I have a lot of stakeholders that I have to get involved … how do I get that approved?

What are the steps to cascade that down to, like, the systems team that’s gonna write those first-order technical requirements? The procedure guide is like it’s it’s almost following it’s like following cooking instructions. Do this, do that, within Jama Connect to help build an approved work product, which I can then check into my document management system or leave or memorialize in a Jama Connect baseline. So I think those more detailed steps are gonna be really helpful for the engineers.

Stroud: Right. So I think it’s clear to me that this is a huge value and benefit to a new Jama Connect user. Is there relevance here for existing Jama Connect users as well, do you think?

Rush: Yeah. I think so. I mean, the solutions site that we put together, where this procedure guy is going to live, is going to have a lot of rich content. So we’re gonna have some curated marketing content, best practices, customer testimonials, things like this, as well as some best practice integration patterns. So if they’ve been wondering how to plug into Jira or a, like, a pre-silicon testing tool, there’s gonna be documentation on, like, you know, what the what that integration looks like and the best practices and use cases we support.

It’s always good to sort of, like, go back to the basics, I think, if you are a Jama Connect customer and you’ve been here for a few years. Like, very recently, I had a call with an EDA company, and they were talking about how to set up our system for IP reuse across most of these custom contexts that we’re gonna be building in the future. And, really, they’ve been sitting on the functionality the entire time, just haven’t had the vision on how to bring that all together, the procedures. And, actually, the procedure guide gives you sort of step-by-step examples on how to take these IP cores and reuse them into different project context. So I think there’s a lot of value for both the new customer and the existing customer.

Stroud: Excellent. So lots of value here. How do customers get hold of it?

Rush: Yeah. So if you’re not a Jama Connect customer yet, you can talk to your account executive. When you purchase Jama Connect, we will actually set you up with the instance. There’s going to be a cost associated with that, but it is something that we absolutely recommend. Shortens that time to value. Your configuration is really ready on day one. If you’re an existing Jama Software customer, you can talk to your customer success manager, and they can talk to you about sort of opting into this and getting you access to the solution space, which is gonna be part of the Jama Software community, as well as some of the templates that we’re developing.

Stroud: That’s great. So looking ahead, obviously, this is just the first release, the first instantiation. I’m assuming we’ve got a road map of features. We’ll continue to add and add more value as we go.

I know one of the hot topics in the industry, you know, in recent weeks and months, is around chiplets. I know that’s something we’re thinking about. So maybe you can talk a little bit about where we’re heading and what comes next.

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Rush: Yeah. Yeah. That is on the docket. So chiplets are certainly on our mind. A system-on-chip management example is on my mind. I think that Jama Connect’s variant management, library, and reuse capabilities are really primed to help solve this problem. It’s just about developing some of that sample data and providing those examples that really resonate with the customer base. So that is something that is on the docket, and we’re gonna spend some time on it in the next couple of weeks here.

One-click data sheet generation. So, data sheet generation can usually be painful for those in the industry. So just giving you sort of, like, a very vanilla report that you can customize and tweak to put your branding on that will produce your data, in a data sheet format really nicely and beautifully. And then, industry-specific use cases, lab-on-chip, medical, and aerospace all have their unique flavors of certain things. They care about certain standards and regulations, and how we model Jama Connect will look a little bit different in each one of these use cases, so we’ll be tackling that as well.

Stroud: There is lots of goodness to come as well. So this has been a great conversation. I’ve learned a lot. Hopefully, our listeners have picked up on this great solution we’ve got coming out. Maybe you can just spend a moment to summarize what we’ve talked about and why this is a game changer for our customers.

Rush: Yep. So the new solution’s official launch date is December 2025. This is gonna include the new solutions site, which will have the procedure guide, some of that documentation on integration resources, and a few other aspects, as well as new templates tuned to the gem to the semiconductor industry that represent how you go from managing the high-level MRD all the way through post-silicon validation. So you’ll see that in a template example, and we’re really excited about where it goes next.

Stroud: Thanks, Steve, and thanks to all for watching. If you’d like to learn more about how Jama Connect can transform your semiconductor projects, visit our website at jamasoftware.com – If you’re already a Jama Software customer, your success manager or Jama Software consultant can provide additional insights. Together, we can drive innovation and build better outcomes.

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Neil Stroud

General Manager, Automotive & Semiconductor at Jama Software

Highly successful, seasoned executive leader with over 25 years in the embedded segment with an ability to align cross functional organizations to execute on a vision. Proven track record in business development, marketing, product management across hardware, software and solution domains based on a foundational commercial and technical expertise.

Transforming Semiconductor Development with Jama Connect®’s New Framework