2019-05-19

What is Real-Time?

In the last few months I have been investigating real-time systems and the conflict between two major approaches that are used. These confrontations have caused me to think more deeply about the concept of time-triggered systems and I am beginning to view this as a significant and valuable paradigm shift when compared with my earlier understanding.In order to set the stage properly, we need to start with an understanding of the concept of “real-time”. In this article I will be using “real-time” as a synonym for “deterministic”. This will require that every action that is performed in a real-time system must be done at the required moment (within predetermined margins of error and with a predetermined maximum level of uncertainty, aka jitter).
2019-05-19

5 Questions To Ask Automotive SPICE® Consultants Before Hiring Them

Your company has decided to benefit by applying Automotive SPICE® in the development of software-controlled systems? There are many possible motivations for the decision to implement ASPICE including (e.g.) customer expectation, quality improvement, reduction of risks and costs, and improved management of growing complexity. Whatever your primary motivation may be, there are a number of things that must be considered. One factor that often dominates is the choice of the right external consulting and support.
2019-03-22

ASPICE Training ROI. Myth or Reality?

When a company considers implementing the ASPICE model, usually one question pop-up: can we achieve a return on investment? In this blog post, we examine the topic of ASPICE training ROI. Firstly, let’s talk about the costs of implementing ASPICE. When planning our project, we need to take into account that training costs are much more than the price of traveling, training and the exam/certification fees. Quite often the critical -hidden- costs are the time spent on training and the missing support and achievements in the projects during that time. In general, at any time there seem to be good reasons for postponing an Automotive SPICE® training due to budgetary or workload reasons. But working under this model does have a long list of benefits and is entirely possible to achieve a return on investment in the short or the mid-term.
2019-03-09

Automotive SPICE®: Frequently Asked Questions

Automotive SPICE®, also known as ASPICE, is a standard used as a framework for improving and evaluating processes. The focus is on processes for development of software-based systems. An ASPICE Assessment is a systematic evaluation of the capability level an organizational unit’s processes against the ASPICE model. In other words, in an assessment your current processes are mapped to and compared with the best practices for software and software-based system development for the automotive industry.
2019-02-28

Why is Reuse so Hard?

During my years in the medical technology industry I was able to observe a relatively small organization working many years on continuous and incremental improvement of a single core product. Reuse was an automatic result of our focus on a single core application domain and a single product that was evolved over the years. The connection to the customers was loose and delays were never more than an embarrassment. When I moved into the automobile industry the picture changed. I was a member of a large, internationally distributed department. We were working on multiple customer projects in parallel. Most of these projects had huge similarities but every single one had its unique distinguishing factors as well. Instead of a long-term evolutionary plan for a single product, each project was strongly time-bound, budget-bound and subject to constant close tracking and scrutiny by the customer.
2019-01-22

Automotive SPICE® for Managers in Detroit from Dec 6th – 7th 18. December 2018

During the week from Dec 3rd to Dec 7th we lead a very successful training workshop “Automotive SPICE for Managers” at a customer in Detroit. 20 managers met outside the office for 2 days, in order to focus on how to drive the change to establish accepted processes. Firstly, we ensured that we are all on the same page according to motivation, objectives and roadmap. We shared some recent experiences and lessons learned and identified the different personal motivations for the same objective of having accepted processes well established. In a teamwork atmosphere a strategy, approaches and plans were developed and already some concrete actions were derived.
2019-01-05

Keynote Presentation at Automotive Innovation Summit Conference, Nov 26th and 27th, 2018 at Audi Forum, Neckarsulm

The central topics of this Automotive Expert Conference end of November 2018 were: a) Autonomous Driving b) Electrification c) Big Data d) Cyber Security Cultural and Ethical aspects of electrified and autonomous driving were shown as future main considerations in governmental activities as well as for the development of software algorithms. The sensoric concepts of autonomous vehicles are currently very much different between the existing prototype applications all over the world and it seems appropriate to consider a maximal diversified approach in order to mimick human sensoric.
2018-12-18

Automotive SPICE® for Managers in Detroit from Dec 6th – 7th 18. December 2018 Allgemein

During the week from Dec 3rd to Dec 7th we lead a very successful training workshop “Automotive SPICE® for Managers” at a customer in Detroit. 20 […]
2018-12-04

Keynote Presentation at Automotive Innovation Summit Conference, Nov 26th and 27th, 2018 at Audi Forum, Neckarsulm

The central topics of this Automotive Expert Conference end of November 2018 were: a) Autonomous Driving b) Electrification c) Big Data d) Cyber Security Cultural and […]