How to improve PLC programming with Git workflows

Many programmers of programmable logic controllers (PLCs) haven’t kept up with traditional software development and may be missing opportunities to improve code quality, development speed and lower costs, according to Darren Henry, vice president of marketing, and Vaughn Varma, technical marketing manager, both with Copia.

PLC programming efficiency questions to answer

In an Aug. 30 Control Engineering webcast, “Using Git for PLC Workflows,” they suggested organizations may be behind in PLC programming workflow without the answers to seven key questions.

1. Who made the last change to your PLC code?
2. What changed and why?
3. Is the latest development code the same code that is running on the PLC?
4. Was the last change reviewed properly? If so, by whom?
5. How efficiently and thoroughly can your senior engineers review code?
6. What is your confidence level that your code is securely stored? (…you have the latest version and it is protected?)
7. Are your development workflows consistent when using different vendors?

For PLC programming, the typical archive folder workflow provides limited context, said Henry and Varma, because of human errors, difficult visibility into why code changed and workflow status. As a result, access is difficult, there’s incomplete code in one location, and asynchronous workflow, among other challenges.

Advantages of DevOps, Git-based software development for PLCs

To alleviate pain associated with manual steps, most software development teams are integrating workflow practices adopted for software development and IT operations (DevOps). These include software to help programmers automate, control and collaborate on projects (so-called Git-based software), automated testing, deployment management, and observability and monitoring tools, said Henry and Varma.

Git-based software tracks code changes, they said, allowing access to earlier versions as code evolves, providing visualization into changes and using branching and merging for more efficient workflows. However, many PLC programmers have not embraced Git-based advantages because development environments often use visual languages, most files are binary and many software development tools are vendor-specific and proprietary.

PLC programmers take note: Git-based software tracks code changes, allowing access to earlier versions as code evolves, providing visualization into changes and using branching and merging for more efficient workflows, Darren Henry is vice president of marketing and Vaughn Varma is technical marketing manager, both with Copia, in a Control Engineering webcast. Courtesy: Copia

Learn more in a Git for PLCs webcast, demonstration, case study

In the webcast (archived for a year), Henry and Varma demonstrate Git-based workflow and show how it can be used with many PLC programming platforms and integrated with business platforms to shorten project timelines, improve quality and reduce downtime. The webcast also includes a case study with a major system integrator that provides additional information about improving PLC code review and faster maintenance of code quality.

Darren Henry is vice president of marketing and Vaughn Varma is technical marketing manager, both with Copia. Edited by Mark T. Hoske, content manager, Control Engineering, CFE Media and Technology, mhoske@cfemedia.com.

KEYWORDS

PLC programming, DevOps and Git-based programming for PLCs

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