Configuration Management for Electronics in Automotive Engineering

Today's automotive systems engineering focuses mainly on the design of components, e.g. ECU's. In the future functionality becomes increasingly more important than the component because the consumers do not order ECUs but functionality. This focus on functions gets even more important, as these functions are often realised by sets of components distributed all over the vehicle. A function can be realised in alternative sets of components and each of these components can realise parts of different functions.

A solid configuration management becomes crucial to perform the change from component based to functionality-oriented systems engineering as it ensures the integrity of all variants and releases of the system throughout its development. In this contribution the authors address how configuration management supports functionality-oriented system design with respect to the development of distributed embedded systems as found in modern cars.