Book excerpt: As real-time and integrated systems become increasingly sophisticated, issues related to development life cycles, non-recurring engineering costs, and poor synergy between development teams will arise. The Handbook of Research on Embedded Systems Design provides insights from the computer science community on integrated systems research projects taking place in the European region. This premier references work takes a look at the diverse range of design principles covered by these projects, from specification at high abstraction levels using standards such as UML and related profiles to intermediate design phases. This work will be invaluable to designers of embedded software, academicians, students, practitioners, professionals, and researchers working in the computer science industry.