I published this article because I receive hundreds of individual and startup inquiries about the autonomous vehicle industry, so I felt it was essential to write on this topic.
If this topic is not your cup of tea, please skip it, but stay with me.
I am working on the post on AI, which should be much more digestible for a wider audience.

What is inside?

• Why did I decide to write about automotive require …

• The Standards

• The Process of Requirements Engineering

  • Customer Requirements (CRS)

  • Stakeholders’ requirements

  • Intelligent combining of CRS and Internal Stakehol …

  • System Requirement Specification (SRS)

  • Technical Requirements Specification (TRS)

  • Requirements Tools

  • The Change Control Board (CCB)

  • Legal Compliance across geographic markets

  • Privacy and customer protection laws

  • Summary

• Naming of this blog/email service.

• Please let me know your interests.

Why did I decide to write about automotive requirements?

The topic of Automotive Requirements Management may not be exciting.
Trust me, I understand—but it is essential.

There is a very good reason why I decided to spend considerable time writing about it.

Here's a bit of personal background.

I have been a systems architect and consultant for a long time. That means I have worked with many organizations, from huge ones to startups, mentoring them and providing software solutions.

Today, in my position, I receive hundreds of inquiries from other companies and recruiters and interview individuals trying to work within the automotive industry, but many struggle to understand automotive needs.

I have always intended to write a book, but I never have time to finish it, and since retirement is a long way ahead, I decided to whip out a series of short articles.

I hope this article will help the candidates understand the “best practices” and “lingo” used in the automotive industry.

Requirements management is fundamental to the automotive industry; it is the backbone of automotive system design, development, and validation.

It’s a rigorous process that begins with meticulously defined atomic stakeholder requirements, which are transformed into system, software, and component requirements.

Crucially, car makers, called Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), mandate a comprehensive, bidirectional pipeline of requirement traceability as a precondition for considering a supplier’s (that is you) entry into the automotive market.

This traceability illustrates the journey from requirements through design, development, and validation and cannot be retrospectively fabricated, underscoring how paramount well-structured atomic requirements are at the very outset.

A company’s credibility, market-entry, and success hinge on its mastery of thorough, compliant, and efficient requirements management.

The Standards

Ensuring compliance with standards like ISO 26262 and ASPICE is indispensable in managing functional safety (FUSA) risks and enhancing the software development process. Hint: you should have the above numbers on your resume.

ISO 26262, a standard for automotive functional safety, mitigates risks associated with potential malfunctions of electronic and electrical systems in vehicles.

ASPICE, on the other hand, provides a framework for hardware/software process assessment, improving quality and ensuring the development process is controlled and effective.

The Process of Requirements Engineering

Customer Requirements (CRS)

Customer requirements (CRS) are the starting point, encompassing desires and expectations from the vehicle’s performance, safety, comfort, fuel efficiency, and more.

Stakeholders’ requirements

In addition to customer requirements, stakeholder requirements are crucial in automotive requirements management.

Stakeholder requirements entail expectations from the business development team, competitive market research, product management, and system architects establishing the baseline product requirements.

The Customer Requirements from the “Request for Information” (RFI), “Request for Quote” (RFQ), and “contract award” are compared and analyzed against the baseline product requirements to establish the gap analysis, feasibility, and cost when responding to the client (OEM).

The suppliers’ team is expected to resolve the requirements gaps for a day or two every week for the project's lifetime (i.e., 3 to 4 years).

The team conducts comprehensive market analyses to comprehend competitor strategies, market trends, and consumer preferences. These findings influence requirement generation by ensuring the product can compete in the market.

Product management is responsible for the overall product strategy and defines key features and functionalities based on market research, technical feasibility, cost-effectiveness, and profitability. Their requirements align the product’s development with the business strategy.

Baseline product requirements refer to the essential specifications a product must fulfill to be deemed viable. These standards are typically set in the context of existing products, industry norms, legal requirements, and safety standards. They form the benchmark against which customer requirements are compared, ensuring the customer’s desires are feasible and align with the product’s fundamental capabilities.

Intelligent combining of CRS and Internal Stakeholder requirements

By integrating stakeholders’ requirements with customer requirements, an automotive company can effectively balance market competitiveness, strategic alignment, baseline product integrity, and customer satisfaction. This fusion of requirements is vital to designing, developing, and validating a product that meets market needs and maintains requirement traceability, a critical prerequisite for gaining OEM consideration and securing market entry.

System Requirement Specification (SRS)

Once these requirements are gathered, they are analyzed and distilled into high-level system requirements, which detail the technical specifications necessary for the vehicle or the subsystem (i.e., RADAR, cameras, LiDAR, ADAS) to meet customer needs.

Technical Requirements Specification (TRS)

Subsequently, these system requirements are broken down into component-level (mechanical, optical, electrical engineering, thermal, etc.) and software requirements. These dictate how the vehicle’s embedded sub-systems and software function. Therefore, these requirements contribute significantly to the vehicle’s performance, safety, Key Performance Indicators (KPI), and other features.

Requirements Tools

Tools like Polarion, DNG, and Windchill try to facilitate efficient and traceable management of these requirements throughout the product development lifecycle.

Several tools are commonly used to manage this process:

1. Polarion: A state-of-the-art tool that is the easiest for managing and consuming (reading) the requirements.

2. IBM’s Doors Next Generation (DNG) is commonly used in the industry.
   I have spent years using it, and I do not love it.

3. PTC Windchill is another option; some OEMs use it.
   However, I cannot recommend it.

4. JIRA does very well regarding requirements management, team reviews, traceability, and ease of use.

The Change Control Board (CCB)

The autonomous automotive industry is marked by rapid technological advancements, evolving customer expectations, and changing regulatory landscapes (sometimes yearly), often leading to dynamic requirement changes. Managing these changes effectively is vital to maintaining product development consistency and relevance.

The Change Control Board (CCB) plays a central role in this scenario. It’s a cross-functional team responsible for reviewing, approving, or rejecting proposed system and software requirements changes. This ensures that all changes align with the overall project scope and strategy and that their impacts on time, cost, and resources are assessed and managed.

In the context of changing requirements, the role of the requirements engineer is paramount. They are tasked with analyzing and understanding the implications of proposed changes, assessing their feasibility and potential impact on existing requirements.

Once a change is approved by the CCB, requirement engineers must update the requirement specifications accordingly and maintain their traceability. They also communicate these changes to all stakeholders, ensuring everyone is aligned with the updated requirements.

Furthermore, requirement engineers manage the priority of these changes, aligning them with the project's strategic goals. This includes maintaining a pipeline of new changes and determining their order of implementation based on their importance, urgency, and potential impact on the product.

Therefore, the collaboration between the CCB and requirement engineers is essential in managing changing requirements. Together, they ensure changes are controlled and implemented in a structured manner, maintaining the integrity of the product while adapting to market needs and strategic shifts.

Legal Compliance across geographic markets

In the global automotive industry, compliance with regional legal regulations is not a choice but a necessity. These regulations govern various aspects of vehicle manufacturing and operation, including safety standards, emissions control, fuel efficiency, and data privacy.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) sets vehicle safety standards in the United States, while the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulates emissions. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) oversees warranties and consumer protections. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) also imposes emissions standards that several other states choose to follow.

The European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) and the European New Car Assessment Programme (Euro NCAP) set stringent safety and emission standards. The EU also enforces the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for data privacy, impacting connected vehicle services.

China, the world’s largest automotive market, has stringent regulations. The China Automotive Technology and Research Center (CATARC) assists in drafting vehicle standards and regulations. China has rigorous fuel economy standards and aims to boost the use of new energy vehicles (NEVs) with regulations like the “Dual Credit” system.

Requirements management in the automotive industry must include these regional regulations in their stakeholder requirements. Compliance is essential to legal operation in these markets and forms a part of the product’s baseline requirements against which customer requirements are evaluated. The requirements engineers must ensure that all regional regulations are considered and that any changes to these laws are promptly integrated into the product’s requirements.

Privacy and customer protection laws

As automotive technology advances, especially in the realm of connected and autonomous vehicles, the issue of data privacy and customer protection has come into sharp focus. Ensuring compliance with privacy and customer protection laws across different markets is integral to the requirements management process.

In the United States, data privacy is largely governed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which has the authority to enforce privacy promises companies make to consumers. Additionally, certain states have enacted privacy laws, such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), which grants Californian consumers rights over their personal information.

In Europe, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the primary law regulating how companies protect EU personal data. This regulation has a broad reach, impacting EU-based companies and any organization dealing with EU citizens’ data. The GDPR imposes strict rules on controlling and processing personally identifiable information (PII).

China’s Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL), enacted in 2021, represents the country’s first comprehensive data privacy law. This legislation adopts principles similar to the GDPR, such as data minimization, limitation on data processing, and consent requirements.

All these privacy laws significantly impact the automotive industry, particularly with the proliferation of connected vehicles that collect, process, and transmit large volumes of data. It is essential for requirements engineers to incorporate these regulations into the requirement specifications, and any breaches could lead to substantial legal and financial consequences.

Further, it is not just about compliance. Companies must also earn their customers’ trust by demonstrating respect for privacy and a commitment to protecting personal data, which could translate into a competitive advantage in today’s data-conscious society.

Summary

Successful requirements management is a strategic balance of understanding customer needs, breaking them down into manageable pieces, and adhering to rigorous industry standards for product safety and quality. Using tools like JIRA, Polarion, DNG, and Windchill facilitates this balance, enabling efficient, compliant, and successful automotive product development.

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Uki D. Lucas