Software version and configuration management

Increasing customer requirements on modem vehicles, especially related to the elctrical system functionality, result in new, even stronger requirements towards original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) caused by increasing software functionality. Those get lifted to a higher level of complexity, due to internal efforts of a global player, such as General Motors (GM), to identify and leverage synergy effects accross all vehicle platforms, in the areas system and software architecture as well as application development. However, higher focus need to be put on the interaction of electronic control units (ECUs), systems and functions through the entire life cycle; from concept development through systems development and integration, the production towards the service of vehicles. On top of the technical challenges to define software architectures and interfaces, new processes - in addition to the traditional hardware development processes - need to be defined and implemented in a mostly hardware and component driven environment. In the near future, software needs to be treated as a product independently from the systems hardware. This will cause OEMs to implement new procedures to purchase, and internally manage software, systems and components.