Design of automobile software development quality management based on ASPICE model

Preface

The automotive industry is currently at a very challenging historical moment. With the ever-changing application scenarios such as electrification, intelligence, networking and sharing, a large number of emerging business and technology demands are growing rapidly. Automobiles are becoming increasingly software-intensive and complex systems. Most innovations in the automotive industry are based on electronics and software. Modern cars can have more than 100 electronic control modules, which together execute billions of bytes of software through the intelligent electronic architecture of the car, and at the same time achieve interconnection between cars and cars, and cars and the cloud through the Internet of Vehicles. The advent of the era of intelligent and connected cars is increasingly dependent on the quality of automotive software development.

With the release of IATF 16949:2016, the requirements of the CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration) system for embedded software product development integration have been further refined. In addition, ISO 26262 functional safety certification has also been introduced and implemented in some automobile companies and suppliers, standardizing the relevant processes of automobile software development. However, with the advent of the "software-defined car" era, automobile companies need a specification and practice specifically for automobile software development to guide and plan the development of automobile software in order to improve the quality and efficiency of automobile software development.

Based on the ASPICE model of automotive software development and application gate management, this paper established an automotive software development quality management platform and applied it in practice. According to the development trend of automotive software, this paper proposed challenges and suggestions for quality management of new automotive product development, so as to continuously improve the quality of automotive software development, improve development efficiency, and cope with the complexity and needs of current and future automobiles.

Automotive software development trends

With the demand for system design of vehicle hardware and software such as automotive sensors, central processing units, ECU electronic control modules, on-board infotainment systems, and chassis systems to achieve efficient signal transmission and integrated system layout within the vehicle, the automotive industry has been focusing on new electronic architectures in recent years to adapt to the development needs of electrification and intelligence.

Electronic architecture is referred to as E/E architecture, also known as EEA (Electrical/Electronic Architecture). In recent years, major automakers, including suppliers, have invested resources in developing a new generation of electronic architecture to adapt to fierce market competition. Tesla first took the lead with a new generation of centralized E/E architecture, followed by suppliers such as Bosch, Aptiv, and Continental, prompting the E/E electronic architecture to change from distributed to centralized, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Electronic architecture changes from distributed to centralized

Traditional car companies such as Volkswagen, GM and Toyota have also begun to lay out a new generation of automotive E/E electronic architecture, increasing investment in electronic architecture and software development technology to meet the needs of automotive software development. For example, Volkswagen's new electronic architecture based on the MEB platform, Toyota's electronic architecture based on the "central + regional" solution, GM's Global B electronic architecture, Huawei's "platform + ecosystem" CC electronic architecture, SAIC's "zero beam" service-oriented SOA software platform architecture, etc. All companies focus on the new generation of electronic architecture and software platform, and through high-computing chips, from domain controllers to a unified on-board computer, achieve faster data processing speed, more comprehensive intelligent networking and more reliable network security. Through the improvement of electronic architecture and software development capabilities, the agile development of new automotive products, the construction of automotive ecosystems, the rapid iteration of software and functions, and the rapid collaboration with suppliers are met to cope with the complexity and needs of current and future vehicles and improve the end-customer experience and satisfaction.

ASPICE Model

ASPICE stands for "Automotive Software Process Improvement and Capacity Determination", which is the automotive software process improvement and capability determination model, and is the development process standard for automotive software. It was originally jointly developed by more than 20 major European automobile manufacturers with the aim of guiding the software development process of vehicle manufacturers and supplier component R&D manufacturers, evaluating the R&D capability level of software development teams, and thus improving the quality of automotive electronic control units and the quality of automotive software development, so as to reduce automotive software problems and improve user experience. Since the release of the model in 2005, major European automobile companies and more and more global vehicle manufacturers and component suppliers have begun to use ASPICE as an entry standard for evaluating their software suppliers.

From the process point of view, the ASPICE model contains 8 process groups, namely, the system engineering process group (SYS), the software engineering process group (SWE), the procurement process group (ACQ), the supplier management process group (SPL), the support process group (SUP), the management process group (MAN), the reuse management process group (REU) and the process improvement process group (PIM), a total of 32 detailed processes. In terms of capability level, ASPICE is divided into 6 levels from L0 to L5 - incomplete level, executed level, managed level, established level, predictable level and innovative level. The higher the capability level, the higher the level of the team in software development and software management capabilities, and the more likely it is to develop high-quality and high-customer satisfaction software products, as shown in Figure 2. At present, European brands Audi, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen and other vehicle manufacturers require their suppliers to pass at least 16 processes of L2 level certification, while domestic enterprises have just introduced this development standard, and vehicle manufacturers and suppliers have also joined the certification implementation of the ASPICE standard. ASPICE is becoming the de facto standard for measuring automotive software development capabilities.

Figure 2 Capability levels of the ASPICE automotive software process improvement and capability measurement model

Construction of automotive software quality management platform

1. Automotive software development process based on ASPICE model

The electronic architecture and software of the whole vehicle have become the main areas of innovation in the automotive industry. The complexity of its R&D process is mainly determined by the scale, interconnection, intelligence, automation and strict legal and regulatory requirements of the electronic architecture and software requirements. This complexity brings about an urgent need for the integrated collaborative R&D management of architecture and software with the whole vehicle. The V-shaped software development process based on the ASPICE model, as shown in Figure 3, is a powerful tool for vehicle companies to ensure the development of their software products, including guiding the development of the vehicle manufacturer's own software and hardware ecosystem, and evaluating the supplier's development process and quality assurance.

Figure 3 V-shaped automotive software development process based on ASPICE model

Based on the requirements of the ASPICE standard model, combined with functional safety standards and years of development experience, SAIC-GM has formulated a standard development process for requirements analysis, design implementation, test verification, quality issue handling and other aspects in automotive software development. Through a strict software development quality review mechanism and management mechanism, it has formulated software development processes, implementation guidelines, deliverable templates and review checklists that meet the requirements of the ASPICE standard, and introduced the standard process into project implementation. In August 2020, it passed the ASPICE Level 3 international authoritative qualification certification, becoming the first domestic vehicle R&D institution to obtain this level of capability certification, which indicates that the company's software development capabilities and software quality management capabilities have reached an international leading level.

2. Pathway Management Theory

Since Robert G. Cooper first used the term Stage-Gate System (SGS) in an article published in the Magazine of Marketing Management in 1988, formally forming the early theory of Stage-Gate Management, this vital process has been continuously developed and improved through continuous learning and summarization in practice by many domestic and foreign experts and modern enterprises.

The main line of gate management is to design new product development (new product conception - determine the scope - establish business projects - new product development - testing and correction - market launch), determine the process management goals of new product development, and focus on the product development process. It divides the innovation process into a series of pre-set stages, and there is a gate deliverable review mechanism at each stage. These audits have a strict evaluation system, which divides the product development process into a series of pre-set stages and entrances. Each stage consists of a set of pre-defined, cross-functional, and simultaneous activities and deliverables; and the gate entrance controls these activities and deliverables, and plays the role of quality control and life-or-death decision checkpoints. It is the gateway that determines the advancement of development activities to the next activity or the next stage deliverable, so as to achieve the advancement of the entire project according to the nodes. The application of the gate management process can not only improve the quality and success rate of product development, but also shorten the overall development time, accelerate product launch, and improve the core competitiveness of the enterprise. The typical gate management process has 4 to 6 stages, as shown in Figure 4.