Automotive SPICE and Extensions

As software-defined vehicles (SDVs) and connected systems transform the automotive industry, industry players face complex challenges in developing software-intensive technologies that meet stringent requirements for quality.

Automotive SPICE® process maturity model

Automotive Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination (Automotive SPICE®, also commonly referred to as ASPICE) is the de facto standard in the automotive industry for evaluating and improving development processes of software-based systems in and around the vehicle. This combination process reference model/process assessment model is based on an initiative of German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) Automotive Special Interest Group (AUTOSIG) and the Quality Management Center (QMC) and conforms to ISO 330xx family of standards for process assessment.

Automotive SPICE® assesses the maturity level (from Level 0, incomplete, to Level 5, optimizing) of three categories of process groups:

Primary Lifecycle Processes are engineering processes used by the supplier and manufacturer for specification, design, development:

System Engineering Process Group (SYS).
Validation Process Group (VAL).
Software Engineering Process Group (SWE).
Hardware Engineering Process Group (HWE).
Engineering Process Group (MLE).
Acquisition Process Group (ACQ).
Supply Process Group (SPL).

Supporting Lifecycle Processes may be used by any of the other processes throughout the lifecycle:

Supporting Process Group (SUP).

Organization Lifecycle Processes establish business goals and develop assets that help the organization achieve these goals:

Management Process Group (MAN).
Process Improvement Process Group (PIM).
Reuse Process Group (REU).

Learn more about the Automotive SPICE® model.

Reuse processes

REU.2: Management of Products for Reuse

Management Processes

MAN.3: Project Management

MAN.5: Risk Management

MAN.6: Measurement

Acquisition Processes

ACQ.4: Supplier Monitoring

Supply Processes

SPL.2: Product Release

Process Improvement Process

PIM.3: Process Improvement

System Level

System engineering processes

SYS.1: Requirements Elicitation

SYS.2: System Requirements Analysis

SYS.3: System Architectural Design

SYS.4: System Integration and Integration Verification

SYS.5: System Verification

Validation Processes

VAL.1: Validation

Software Level

System engineering processes

SWE.1: Software Requirements Analysis

SWE.2: Software Architectural Design

SWE.3: Software Detailed Design and Unit Construction

SWE.4: Software Unit Verification

SWE.5: Software Component Verification and Integration Verification

SWE.6: Software Verification

Hardware Engineering Processes

HWE.1: Hardware Requirements Analysis

HWE.2: Hardware Design

HWE.3: Verification against Hardware Design

HWE.4: Verification against Hardware Requirements

Machine Learning Processes

MLE.1: Machine Learning Requirements Analysis

MLE.2: Machine Learning Architecture

MLE.3: Machine Learning Training

MLE.4: Machine Learning Model Testing

Support processes

SUP.1: Quality Assurance

SUP.8: Configuration Management

SUP.9: Problem Resolution Management

SUP.10: Change Request Management

SUP.11: Machine Learning Data Management

UL Solutions Software Intensive Systems Automotive SPICE® services

UL Solutions Software Intensive Systems experts help our customers tackle the complexity of software-defined vehicles and deliver increased safety and reliability. We leverage our team’s expertise in research-backed workflow improvement and global safety science leadership to offer services that help our customers navigate compliance with evolving standards, regulations and requirements for automotive processes and safety-critical products and services.

Our consulting and training offerings focus on an integrated development cycle that encompasses highly interrelated areas including Automotive SPICE®, functional safety and cybersecurity, which play important roles in connected vehicle systems and help advance the mobility industry.

Automotive SPICE® consulting services

At UL Solutions Software Intensive Systems, we offer consulting designed around Automotive SPICE® and extensions to help support automotive research and development (R&D) teams in building software capability and developing documentation, testing and processes related to the delivery of high-quality products. These capabilities help manufacturers deliver electronic and mechatronic systems in a disciplined manner with the Automotive SPICE® standard.

Our consulting services can help you:

Evaluate the status of process improvements through gap analysis and formal Automotive SPICE® assessments.
Systematically improve existing workflows and methods to achieve the required capability levels with a strong focus on your business goals.
Reduce process overhead by supporting efficient tool implementations, for example, to implement bi-directional traceability.
Fulfill the requirements of Automotive SPICE® in harmony with functional safety, cybersecurity and agile requirements.
Fulfill the requirements of Automotive SPICE® extensions, including Automotive SPICE® for Cybersecurity, Mechanical SPICE® and Hardware SPICE®.

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Software Quality Improvement Leader (SQIL) for Volkswagen

UL Solutions Software Intensive Systems leverages our Volkswagen (VW) certified Software Quality Improvement Leaders (SQILs) to work with suppliers to help optimize development processes and improve software competences according to VW guidelines.

The VW qualification scheme ensures that SQILs are equipped with the right knowledge to demonstrate to suppliers how they can adhere to VW quality standards. As SQILs, our experts work on behalf of suppliers, not VW. We also verify that progress can be monitored using key performance indicators (KPIs) to help establish your customers’ trust. SQILs are not permitted to share any information about a product with VW.

Automotive SPICE® training

We offer a variety of Automotive SPICE® and extensions training opportunities. These trainings are developed under the International Assessor Certification Scheme (intacs®) and lay a foundation for the participant to become an intacs-certified Automotive SPICE assessor. Our portfolio of Automotive SPICE® trainings includes: