Experience report: Software quality assurance for vehicle programming

Der Vortrag wurde anlässlich der Messe Automotive Testing Expo 2010 in Stuttgart im Open Technology Forum in englischer Sprache gehalten.

 

The subject vehicle electronics has become more and more important over the last years and a change in this trend is not in sight. An extensive variety of electronic devices are integrated in modern passenger cars already today. Accordingly the demands on modern vehicle programming and diagnosis systems are highly complex as they must meet a huge number of requirements. If these systems are applied interdisciplinary and in a global dimension, software quality becomes a key factor for success. We will report of our experiences with a huge vehicle programming development project to show how highly dynamic and complex software systems can be brought in accordance with an effective and cheap quality assurance. In this occasion we will focus on the used procedures and technologies (Java and ASAM MCD 2D/3D). Experience has shown that the earlier bugs are spotted in a development progress, the cheaper they can be fixed. According to this it is essential for development projects to find the right testing strategy to identify problems at an early stage. In this context, test automation and simulation can contribute to improve software quality significantly at low costs. Another important success factor is to identify also functional besides technical problems at an early stage. As a quality assuring instance, it can also be challenging to apply an effective problem management that can handle several involved departments, suppliers and partners. We will show which measures we took to reach all this goals.