Requirements and Implications of ASPICE Auto Software Developer Certification
In college, a few friends and I got our first taste of embedded systems programming during our senior project. We made an “Internet of Things” (IoT) alarm clock that could wirelessly activate WiFi lightbulbs, a wireless coffee pot, and Bluetooth speakers. On presentation day all of our features worked, though often not at the same time. Fortunately, when our professor came to examine our project, we got lucky and everything worked perfectly. If he had come back again the next day, I’m not certain we would have been so fortunate. As a software developer, you know that it requires countless debugging iterations to write a program that runs according to specification. It is important that you have a compiler that guarantees ongoing product support, can access the intended microprocessor’s hardware security module (HSM), and whose libraries are kept up to date. Automotive Software Process Improvement and Capability Determination (ASPICE or Automotive SPICE) certification help developers separate the men from the boys when it comes to development toolsets.
What does an ASPICE Certification Mean?
As a software developer, you’re probably already familiar with SPICE. ASPICE is the same software process development certification tailored for the auto industry, derived from ISO 15504. ASPICE lets you know that the developer who made your developer toolset has a serious, well managed, development process. Here is a quick refresher on what the different SPICE level certifications mean. Auto Software Developer Certification is important for developing high-quality software.
There are 6 levels of certification for ASPICE, ranging from 0-5.
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0 - Software development processes are not complete. This could mean that the software has not met all of its design goals, there is no documentation on the software, or other elements are incomplete.
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1 - Software development processes are complete and have been documented. This means that the company’s software works and is documented. A level 1 certification could mean that the company is a new start-up.
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2 - Software development processes are fully managed. The jump from 1 to 2 is probably the largest in the certification levels. A level 2 certification means that the company has trained programmers and an established management process. They document their process fully and are prepared to implement and support their products.
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3 - Level 3 certification means the company’s processes are defined and established, i.e., the Level 2 certification processes have been implemented for some time.
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4 - Level 3 processes can be predicted. This level means that the company has been performing its processes for long enough that they can predict how they will work.
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5 - Level 5 shows that a company fully understands and controls its processes and can optimize them.
To receive certification an assessor must visit a company and examine its products. In order to get certification level 1, the assessor must be able to confirm that their products have achieved their design goals, and have been thoroughly documented. For levels 2-5 the assessor interviews employees and managers, and examines the company’s processes in action. The certification process is rigorous since it is integral to meet the safety compliance standards as ADAS systems are being developed.
Use a Developer Toolset that lets you focus on your own coding
Why Does ASPICE Certification Matter?
Our IoT alarm clock did simple functions, like turning on a lightbulb, but your software will be processing and reacting to data from multiple sensors. ASPICE certifications can give you the certainty that the software works. However, as ADAS hardware and your software evolve, you’ll want your compiler to be kept up-to-date.
An ASPICE certification level 1 will assure you that your developer toolset will work, at least at the beginning. My team could have been certified at level one. The software in our alarm clock was guaranteed to work for the first alarm, but not necessarily after we added a snooze function. ASPICE level 1 is enough for you to know that the developer toolset you’re buying is real, but it isn’t enough for you to build long-term programs using it. When it comes to Auto Software Developer Certification it ensures continual improvements are being made with every development process.
You want your developer toolset to work through your software’s lifetime, and be expandable for new future development. If bug reports come in, you will want patches for your developer toolset to keep it up-to-date. When new sensors come out, you will want an active toolset developer who can integrate a new library of functions for those sensors. A level 2 certification and above will guarantee that the developer can both make the developer toolset and support it. If your toolset’s developer only has a level 1 certification, they may not still be around when you need them. A level 2 certification is an absolute necessity when dealing with software that will control system critical functions to ensure product safety.
Certifications above level 2 are good, but they are more about how efficiently a company operates, rather than how well the software performs. Levels 1 and 2 are the certifications that matter the most. They guarantee that a company’s product will work, that the company is established, and that they will be around to support their product. TASKING just received an ASPICE level 2 certification, proving what auto software developers have known all along, that Altium makes, and supports, good software and there is no exception when it comes to Auto Software Developer Certification.
Interested in finding out more about industry certifications? Call an expert at TASKING.
