Agility in Automotive ECU Development Projects

Dear participant,

as part of my master´s thesis, I am conducting reasearch on the topic of agility in automotive system supplier R&D projects in current environments as well as future environments with software defined vehicles and high performance computing. My motivation behind this research is the fact that even leading companies in this industry can have an insufficient strategy of how to introduce agility in their R&D departments. Furthermore, the focus of most companies seems to be the scaling of agile, all with varying success. In the process, these companies skip the very important question of how agile development projects should actually be like. Due to the complexity of system development projects, there cannot be a solution to fit all projects. Please take your time to answer this 20 minutes survey so we can get closer to a sensible agile or hybrid model that fits the needs of R&D departments in development projects.

Secured

Please consider the following information for this survey.

The questions should be answered based on experience and information about development projects for automotive control units.

Systems Engineering designs and defines the system functions based on customer request. This includes the topics functional safety and cybersecurity. Other disciplines derive their architecture and requirements from systems engineering.

Mechanical Engineering develops the housing of the unit, defining the size, materials and sourcing.

Electrical Engineering designs the electronic unit itself, deciding on components, the microcontroller and the layout.

Software Engineering develops software functionality according to software requirements.

Verification and validation is responsible for system performance testing as well as covering customer specific tests and homologation.

1

What is your area of expertise?

You may choose multiple options

This first section deals with the question of how engineering disciplines have different needs for implementation of agile and what this means for complex projects where multiple disciplines are involved. First, an isolated view on each discipline shall be taken, then the synergies between disciplines will be in focus.

2

Does systems engineering benefit from agile ways of working?

Please try to make an isolated statement about this engineering discipline. 1 star means you do not see a benefit and 5 stars mean you see a benefit and agile ways of working are an absolute must to implement.
3

Does mechanincal engineering benefit from agile ways of working?

Please try to make an isolated statement about this engineering discipline. 1 star means you do not see a benefit and 5 stars mean you see a benefit and agile ways of working are an absolute must to implement.
4

Does electrical engineering benefit from agile ways of working?

Please try to make an isolated statement about this engineering discipline. 1 star means you do not see a benefit and 5 stars mean you see a benefit and agile ways of working are an absolute must to implement.
5

Does software engineering benefit from agile ways of working?

Please try to make an isolated statement about this engineering discipline. 1 star means you do not see a benefit and 5 stars mean you see a benefit and agile ways of working are an absolute must to implement.
6

Does verification and validation benefit from agile ways of working?

Please try to make an isolated statement about this engineering discipline. 1 star means you do not see a benefit and 5 stars mean you see a benefit and agile ways of working are an absolute must to implement.
7

Please elaborate on your answers above.

8

In which discipline do you see the biggest potential to become more efficient due to the implementation of agile ways of working?

Please change the order according to your experience and expertise. Number 1 is the discipline with the biggest potential.
9

How do the engineering disciplines affect each other in their possibilites to implement/be agile?

Please consider for example lead times for the production of samples, lead times for production tools, efforts and time for validation of the product, process dependencies in the V-cycle, etc.
10

Which tools and methods do you believe to be most useful for automotive R&D projects?

Change the order according to your preference (1. - most important, last - least important)
11

How well can you adapt these methods to engineering disciplines outside of software engineering?

Most agile ways of working / methods originate from software engineering. How well can other disciplines use these methods? Which challenges do you see?
12

How do you think will the arrival of Software Defined Vehicles change the need for agile ways of working in the future?

13

How do you think will the arrival of High Performance Computing change the need for agile ways of working in the future?

14

What is it that automotive R&D teams are missing currently that is necessary for successful implementation of agile?

Please change the order according to your experience and expertise. Number 1 is the most important factor for successful implementation of agile
15

Please elaborate on your answer above.

This section deals with the software defined vehicle and high performance computing. How will these two topics affect homologation and PPAP? Do you see other areas that will be hugely impacted by these megatrends?

16

Will the arrival of Software Defined Vehicles and High Performance Computing impact PPAP processes?

Will constant software updates, even after the start of series production, force constant PPAP procedures on suppliers and OEMs?
17

Will the arrival of Software Defined Vehicles and High Performance Computing impact Homologation processes?

Will constant software updates, even after the start of series production, force constant homologation procedures on suppliers and OEMs?
18

What other impact might these megatrends have on automotive R&D projects?

As the final section of this survey, an idea for future collaboration between OEMs and suppliers shall be discussed.

Currently, an OEM and their suppliers have limited collaboration during development projects. OEMs and suppliers can also have very different processes, making it challenging to align on processes, milestones and methods at the beginning of each project. It becomes even more complex when multiple suppliers are involved in the development of one sub-system (e.g. supplier 1 develops software for a hardware that is developed by supplier 2).

The question then becomes: Should OEMs and suppliers create integrated processes, e.g. in the form of Agile Release Trains that are led by the OEM?

19

Do you believe this option is worth investigating?

20

Which potential benefits do you see in integrating OEM and supplier processes?

21

Which constraints and risks do you see in integrating OEM and supplier processes?