An empirical study on software process improvement in automotive

This paper presents the results of an empirical study on process improvement initiatives linked to management of software developments for the automotive industry. In this context the software development is mainly demanded to specialized software suppliers that are required by car makers to improve and measure the process quality of their projects by applying process models such as Automotive SPICE®. The authors, as Automotive SPICE assessors, have directly observed and analyzed specific software process improvement opportunities during a significant number of assessments performed at several organizations. This paper, that focuses specifically on the project management process, is the initial step of a wider study. Such a study aims at identifying common weaknesses in industrial projects having negative impact according Automotive SPICE. The study relies on data taken from several assessments performed world-wide and it shows the most occurring weaknesses in terms of the project management process base practices - such recurrent weaknesses that are then clustered appropriately and analyzed to provide insight in this crucial process.