Board bring-up is a phased process whereby an electronics system, inclusive of assembly, hardware, firmware, and software elements, is successively tested, validated and debugged, iteratively, in order to achieve readiness for manufacture.
Any time a new prototype run is done as part of a new product introduction cycle, a repeatable set of steps are needed to ensure that the design is working as per specifications. Firstly, it must be verified that the board has been assembled correctly. Next, basic hardware test is needed (to ensure that the individual devices and buses/interconnects are operational which involves testing power, clocks, and basic functional connectivity). After that, any firmware and low-level software must be debugged, to get the board operational; so that the next phase of testing may be applied, such as memory test or signal integrity validation. Finally, a system's operating system is loaded, and any embedded software is checked.