Software Product Development: Manufacturer – Supplier Cooperation

Abstract

Automotive software embedded in an electronic control unit (ECU) is mostly outsourced to the suppliers. An automotive manufacturer specifies functional requirements and takes role as a system integrator merging a large number of software components acquiring from different suppliers. The growing number of ECUs in a vehicle results in the manufacturer having a lot of interactions with a number of suppliers. Therefore there is a need of an effective mechanism to collaborate with the suppliers during software development. In this thesis, a case study at an automotive OEM is conducted with the purpose to investigate the current state of the practice of how the practitioners develop a new software product together with suppliers. In addition, it also seeks to identify areas of challenges the practitioners encounter during the development effort. The case study employs a framework for lightweight software process improvement as research techniques. The case study incorporates the study of interviews and documentation from multiple data sources allowing triangulation of findings. The results show that, to develop a software-intensive system with the supplier, it is crucial to take into consideration not only the engineering process but also the aspect of management strategies. Moreover, it is this area that the practitioners have identified as the most important one to improve to achieve a successful OEM-supplier cooperation.