Automotive SPICE® Assessments

When an Automotive SPICE® assessor contacts your project team about evaluating the performance of your development processes, you may have questions about the assessment process and how to prepare for it.

Find the answers to common questions about Automotive SPICE® assessments in this resource page, which features three videos and a downloadable resource guide covering this essential information.

Automotive SPICE® is a trademark of VDA QMC.

Part 1: What is involved in an Automotive SPICE® assessment?

This section and the accompanying video discuss the definition, key elements and processes of an Automotive SPICE® assessment.

What is an Automotive SPICE assessment?

Automotive Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination (Automotive SPICE®) is a process assessment model to determine the capability level of the development processes.

An Automotive SPICE® assessment is an evaluation of the development processes of software-based systems. Most likely, you will encounter the assessment if you work for a supplier that develops software-based systems. Your customer expects your established workflow processes to fulfill certain criteria.

Using the Automotive SPICE® criteria as a guide, you can shape your workflow processes (how you do your work) in a systematic way. The quality of your processes can affect the reliability of your product. For example, when you cannot control the configuration of a major version of your product and your customer is not able to integrate your system into the car, the car manufacturer must delay the start of production. Therefore, reliable processes are critical to an organization.

Automotive SPICE® provides fundamental process criteria based on industry experience.

The Automotive SPICE® assessment is conducted to evaluate whether your way of working reflects these requirements. The assessor evaluates the implementation of a workflow based on the process requirements specified by Automotive SPICE®.

Your customer may request a third-party assessor to rigorously evaluate your processes. Once the assessment is complete, the customer learns about the capability of the project being evaluated. The Automotive SPICE® assessment report can also help you by providing insights for process improvements.

What does an Automotive SPICE® assessment iInvolve?

The evaluation consists of a selection of processes that are relevant to your customer’s products. The capability level relates to these processes; Automotive SPICE® assessments generally do not cover a company’s entire R&D activity.

Automotive SPICE® involves assessments, not audits. In other domains, an audit is directed at the process and concerns the management system. The evaluation of an audit follows binary logic, determining only whether or not the requirements are met.

In an Automotive SPICE® assessment, processes are examined based on evidence. You must demonstrate to the assessor through your work products that your workflow processes meet the requirements. The assessment’s questions are based solely on the Automotive SPICE® requirements. No additional internal process requirements are considered.

Automotive SPICE® takes a much more detailed approach than an audit. Instead of simply determining whether you pass or fail, Automotive SPICE® considers many parameters, starting with base and generic practices that reflect proven automotive industry practices.

An Automotive SPICE® assessment rigorously examines a range of processes within a specific project and identifies potential process improvements. The process requirements that must be met in order to achieve the process goals (also called process outcomes) are defined as base and generic practices for each Automotive SPICE process. With your work products, you demonstrate that these practices are being implemented. Given this indication of process capability, the assessor can evaluate the process based on process attributes.

The assessment indicates the extent to which specific processes or their attributes meet the Automotive SPICE® requirements and the capability level of each assessed process. The evaluations of base practices, process attributes and capability levels are consolidated into a single, comprehensive report. This report provides a detailed look into how targeted the development processes of the project are and identifies areas for improvement. These insights make the Automotive SPICE® assessment a valuable tool.

Part 2: How is the Automotive SPICE® assessment process structured?

Assessors will assess processes in a specific project handled by your team, and the structure of the assessment will reflect the interaction between external parties and your team members. The video and the complimentary resource guide provide an example outlining the typical phases and activities of the assessment process. Some actions are the assessor’s responsibilities, and other actions are the responsibilities of your team and organization.

The paragraphs that follow and the accompanying video explain the phases of an Automotive SPICE® assessment and the roles of the persons involved.

What are the phases of an Automotive SPICE® assessment?

There are three phases of the assessment process:

1. Preparation phase.
2. Execution phase.
3. Closure phase.

Preparation phase

In the preparation phase, the focus is primarily on planning for the assessment. The scope of the assessment, goals and other factors that affect the assessment are defined. This phase results in an assessment plan containing all the necessary information for the assessment, along with an assessment agenda that is agreed upon by the lead assessor, sponsor and organization being assessed.

A central part of this phase is defining the assessment scope, which includes processes, capability levels, instances, product components, teams and locations being assessed.

The preparation phase comprises four activities:

1. Initialization.
2. Planning.
3. Document review.
4. Team preparation.

The assessor moderates the introductory meeting with the sponsor and the representative of the project to be assessed. Planning the assessment process and reviewing documents are important preparatory actions for the lead assessor. The team leader guides the project team throughout the preparation phase and the entire assessment process.

Execution phase

The assessment typically begins with a short opening briefing, during which the lead assessor explains the concept of Automotive SPICE®, the assessment process and the scope of the assessment in a short presentation. A representative of your company then introduces the product, the project and the organization. After this introduction, the interviews and document reviews are conducted according to the agenda.

The interviews most often start with:

• Project management.
• Quality assurance.
• Configuration management.

These critical processes provide the assessors with valuable insights into the project. Then the processes from other process groups follow. The order of assessing the engineering processes should be in their customary order. The order is important, as the processes build upon one another. For example, in order to verify the traceability of system tests relating to the system requirements, we must first understand the structure of the system requirements.

Between the interviews, the assessment team convenes for consolidation sessions, during which the evidence is reviewed and consolidated and practices and process attributes are assessed. These consolidation meetings and their results are confidential, as the assessments may need revision at a later stage due to new evidence.

At the end of the assessment, the assessors present the results.

Closure phase

In the closure phase, the assessor produces an assessment report, which provides:

• The capability levels of your processes – The assessor individually evaluates capability levels based on specific parameters using an assessment formula. The report includes the rationale behind the assessor’s rating decision and justifies the impacts of relevant process outcomes.
• An explanation of how the presented evidence relates to the process requirements of Automotive SPICE® – The report includes detailed description of identified strengths, weaknesses and observations for each process activity.
• The connection between the observed evidence and the documented observation.
• A management summary highlighting the key aspects of the assessment.

Read the Automotive SPICE® guidelines for a comprehensive overview of the formal assessment process. 

Assessment roles

An Automotive SPICE® assessment involves three main roles: lead assessor, co-assessor and sponsor.

The lead assessor is responsible for the procedurally correct execution of the assessment. They must have the qualification of Automotive SPICE® Competent Assessor or Principal Assessor.

The lead assessor:

• Communicates with the assessment sponsor.
• Plans the assessment.
• Confirms the assessment team is qualified to covers all necessary aspects for the context of the assessment, such as cybersecurity and functional safety.
• Confirms the assessment is conducted in accordance with the requirements of the assessment process.
• Confirms the assessment is properly documented.

An assessment team consists of at least two assessors: the lead assessor and one or more co-assessors. Assessors must be certified by the VDA QMC (Quality Management Center), a quality standards organization founded by the German Automotive Industry Association (VDA).  Otherwise, the assessment may not be recognized by the original equipment manufacturer (OEM). In an independent assessment, the lead assessor, at minimum, must belong to a different organization.

The sponsor of an assessment is responsible for ensuring that the assessors have a valid certification and the assessment team has access to all the resources they require.

The sponsor commissions the assessment, receives the assessment report and decides to whom it will be forwarded. They are an outsider to the project but highly invested in its success. If the sponsor is from your company, they typically will be a member of the executive management. When a manufacturer commissions an assessment for a supplier, the representative of the supplier becomes the sponsor.

In addition, for each location, we recommend appointing an assessment coordinator, who is responsible for organizing the assessment.

Part 3: How to prepare for an assessment

This section and the accompanying video discusses aspects of preparing for an Automotive SPICE® assessment, including:

• Laying the groundwork two to three months in advance
• Detailed preparation two to three weeks in advance
• Preparation for and handling the assessment itself

The importance of preparation and mindset

An Automotive SPICE® assessment provides valuable insights into your current position and how to improve workflows and reduce product risks. A key part of approaching the assessment with right mindset is preparing thoroughly, including refamiliarizing yourself with tasks and processes that may date back a long way. The assessment itself is subject to significant time pressure, but thoroughly preparing for it can help you respond clearly and precisely.

Becoming familiar with Automotive SPICE® terminology can also help you understand what the assessor is looking for when they are asking questions about a work product.

Two to three months before the assessment

The preparation starts by setting the assessment agenda in a timely manner, a prerequisite for identifying the appropriate interviewees.

The goal of this phase of preparation is to understand the current status of your project in light of the Automotive SPICE® requirements. Consider which areas in the project are critical and areas that have been particularly challenging for your team. Match Automotive SPICE® practices with your own project implementation. If they don’t match, identify the shortfalls between expectations and practice. Create an improvement plan detailing how you will address these gaps.

Carefully review what you and your team have achieved. This can help you address minor oversights.

Two to three weeks before the assessment

In the weeks leading up to the assessment, we recommend the following preparatory work:

• Organize the project folder. Resolve any issues with naming and versioning. Remove any artifacts that are no longer relevant.
• Confirm that all team members know where to find important documents.
• Prepare or select work products to present as evidence.
• Explain to interviewees the Automotive SPICE® requirements and their role in the assessment. Provide guidance about how to explain how their tasks contribute to fulfilling the requirements.
• Thoroughly train your team members and representatives in your company on how to conduct themselves in the interview situation.

Preparing for the assessment itself

The best preparation for an interviewee is to be very familiar with the content of the processes that are relevant to them. Your team members will need to understand:

• The associated process descriptions and steps. The generic practices, which address aspects of capability levels 2 and 3, such as competence management and resource management. (The Automotive SPICE® model uses 0-5 capability levels to indicate a process has been achieved. Level 0 signifies basic, incomplete processes, Level 1 indicates accomplished objectives. Level 2 focuses on managed and dependable work products. Level 3 is an established process within the organization, Level 4 indicates predictable outcomes, Level 5 are processes that are evolving and maturing.)
• The structure of the project folder:
• The overall structure.
• Where the work products are stored.
• How to find work products quickly and easily.
• Which work products and samples to present (consider creating a list of work products as part of your preparation.
• The key terminology of the Automotive SPICE® standard.
• The underlying logic of Automotive SPICE®, including the base practices and generic practices that relate to all your relevant processes.
• Briefing interviewees is essential, as they are often unaware of how their work and performance fits into the Automotive SPICE® model. This lack of awareness can lead to assessments being given a lower rating. 

Finally, prepare to answer the following questions:

• What topics have the assessors not covered?
• What do you do particularly well; what are you proud of?

Recommendations for conduct during the assessment

• Convey a positive attitude to your team members.
• Approach the assessment from a practical and constructive standpoint.
• Answer questions directly.
• Act as a team.
• Prepare a positive example for your area of responsibility.
• Show your improvement plan.
• Create documents at the right time.
• Keep presentations succinct.
• Focus on relevant topics.
• Take responsibility for your own area and actions.
• Be transparent about process weaknesses.

Thoroughly preparing for the assessment and eliminating process weaknesses are important to enhancing your customer’s satisfaction.