Automotive Requirements Engineering and Management: Being Shaped by Complexity

Automotive Requirements Engineering and Management has become essential as the complexity of the automotive industry increases.

While requirements documents are not new to the automotive industry, the rapid rate of change brought about by the introduction of sophisticated automated and electrified systems means that drawing up a requirements document is no longer a best-in-class practice.

Requirements are critical to ensuring the timeous delivery of a cost-effective product meeting customers’ expectations and safety and emissions requirements.

As the four ACES (Automated Driving, Connectivity, Electrification, and Shared mobility) change the face of the automotive industry, the complexity of electronic and electrical systems (E/E) is increasing exponentially.

In fact, about 40% of component-spend in high-end models can be ascribed to electric and electronic systems, with that cost set to continue to grow.

Simultaneously, customer demands for a heightened user experience (UX) have also impacted automotive requirements engineering and management.

Consequently, given an inconsistent global legislation, car manufacturers have been forced to engineer an increasing number of novel variations of the base specification. As a result, the complexity of compiling requirements documents outlining the specifications, processes, and procedures required to produce automotive components and systems continues to grow.

Needless to say, the challenges of writing automotive requirements have never been greater, especially in the functional safety realm.

The role of?writing requirements?in the realm of?automotive functional safety?is to provide a clear understanding of the needs for implementation, independent of the?Automotive Safety Integrity Level (ASIL).?

It is important to clearly define what is going to be implemented, and how it is going to be implemented. This is accomplished through the creation and use of two key documents that are scoped and tailored to the automotive industry:

• Feasibility Study Report (FSR): Provides analysis and justification for the project that summarizes the activity, identifies a project’s solutions and defines whether it is practical and realistic.
• Technical Safety Requirements (TSR): The requirements that define the conditions, safe boundaries, and management or administrative controls necessary to ensure the manufacture and proper operation of a safe vehicle.

Want to know more about automotive requirements engineering and management training? Tonex offers a 3-day Automotive Requirements Engineering and Management course.

Tonex also offers nearly 400 classes, seminars and workshops in close to four dozen categories of systems engineering training.

For more information, questions, comments, contact us.