FuMaMa 2019-2021: Fuzzy Measures Management

Starting Point

Using a specific method or procedure does not automatically result in persistently high quality work. Rather, high quality work is the result of the continuous pursuit of improvement and adaptation to changing framework conditions. This mindset is reflected in the PDCA model - Plan, Do, Check, Act.

Software development in the automotive industry makes use of the ISO 26262-6 for functional safety precisely because the developed software has to take over safety relevant tasks. For example, software designed for steering control or a braking system is safety relevant because failure of the software can cause bodily harm or injury. ISO 26262-6 therefore prescribes quality assurance measures that must be applied during the development of such software products.

There are many tools and manually generated reports that are currently being used to capture quality assurance results in accordance with ISO 26262-6. Yet this heterogeneous database is confusing and as a result difficult to define for individual projects. For these reasons, automotive software manufacturers want to see the conformity of the software development process in a central location to efficiently determine the necessary countermeasures.

Aim and Uses

The motivation of the cooperation project aimed at holistic quality management within the framework of the PDCA model. With regards to a continuous improvement process, it was not only necessary to systematically measure and check the quality situation, but also to effectively and efficiently improve both.

The main focus of the project was on the automation of measure determination. Based on the identified compliance status in a project, the comprehensive set of options was used to define those actions that would produce compliance efficiently and effectively. For this purpose, a to-do-list generator was developed that proposed suitable countermeasures based on the fuzzy set theory for given distributions of the quality parameters as well as their aggregation by the quality model. Beyond mere assessments, countermeasures were also identified and the PDCA cycle was fully implemented. This corresponded to the high practical demand for efficient, high quality software development.

The recommendation system was designed for specific countermeasures in such a way that potential users who lacked prior knowledge or in-depth expertise could systematically and objectively initiate and implement improvements.

Automotive software manufacturers are looking for a holistic view of ISO compliance and automated generation of countermeasures. Therefore, the recommendation system is integrated into the  tool MES Quality Commander. In this way, necessary steps for ISO 26262-6 compliance, such as identifying countermeasures, can be ascertained automatically.