Abstract

This paper provides a thorough survey of cross-functional collaboration models of firmware quality assurance in storage systems, emphasizing the inter disciplinary collaboration among development, quality assurance and validation teams in SSD's life cycle. The systematic review includes 14 peer-reviewed papers published 2018-2025 that explore collaborative models, methodologies for testing, and validation techniques. Results show present firmware quality assurance policy focuses more on technology verification and lacks the right level of collaboration between organizations, and there is little support given to agile sprint methodologies and stakeholders control. In this paper, the Cross-functional Integrated Testing Excellence (CITE) framework is proposed to fill the identified gap in collaborative firmware quality assurance. The study helps to better understand the influence of cross-disciplinary coordination on firmware and testing productivity, as well as the overall storage system performance in modern development ecosystems.

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