A Pragmatic Model-Based Product Engineering Process

Complexity of electronics and embedded software systems in automobiles has been increasing over the years. This necessitates the need for an effective and exhaustive development and validation process in order to deliver fault free vehicles at reduced time to market. Model-based Product Engineering (MBPE) is a new process for development and validation of embedded control software. The process is generic and defines the engineering activities to plan and assess the progress and quality of the software developed for automotive applications. The MBPE process is comprised of six levels (one design level and five verification and validation levels) ranging from the vehicle requirements phase to the start of production. The process describes the work products to be delivered during the course of product development and also aligns the delivery plan to overall vehicle development milestones. MBPE enables early confirmation of fitness of the embedded system and the detection of software errors during product development, by bringing a more robust and efficient development, verification and validation process across all stakeholder departments within the organisation and supplier base. The paper gives an overview of the MBPE process covering the development and verification and validation activities, the deployment strategy and the challenges faced in the deployment across different groups in the organisation and suppliers.