Modernizing the ASPICE Software Engineering Base Practices Framework: Integrating Alternative Technologies for Agile Automotive Software Development
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The automotive industry's reliance on software has grown exponentially in recent years, with advanced functionalities like autonomous driving, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, and real-time data analytics becoming standard. This transformation has led to a dramatic increase in lines of code per vehicle, from around 10 million a decade ago to over 100 million in high-end models today. These advancements bring unique challenges, particularly in managing the complexity, maintaining traceability, and ensuring compliance with safety-critical standards.
This paper proposes strategies to modernize the ASPICE (Automotive SPICE) framework, which provides a robust process assessment model for software development in the automotive industry. The focus is on ASPICE's key process areas (SWE.1 to SWE.5): Requirements Engineering, Architectural Design, Software Unit Design and Implementation, Software Integration, and Software Verification. The authors analyze the existing limitations of traditional ASPICE implementation in agile environments and propose practical solutions leveraging modern technologies, such as blockchain, CI/CD pipelines, and microservices, to achieve both agile velocity and ASPICE compliance.
The paper explores how these modernizations can enhance efficiency, traceability, and quality in automotive software development. The proposed strategies include the use of blockchain for requirements traceability, AI-powered requirements analysis and test case generation, microservices architecture for improved modularity, and the integration of DevOps practices and CI/CD pipelines. The authors also discuss the implications of these modernizations for the automotive industry, highlighting the potential to develop safer, more reliable, and more innovative software-driven vehicle systems.
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