Clever combination of Automotive SPICE® assessments and functional safety audits

The most important things at a glance:

• Safety assessments can be carried out as often as required in the project process (functional safety concept, system design, etc.).
• Safety assessments pursue a different goal than Automotive SPICE® assessments.
• It therefore makes sense to consider and apply the synergies between Automotive SPICE® assessments and safety audits.
• Both Automotive SPICE® and development according to ISO 26262 require numerous evaluation methods and activities.
• An intelligent combination of Automotive SPICE® assessments and safety audits has proven its worth. It saves an enormous amount of work, time and costs.

Overview

1. What are safety assessments?
2. How can Automotive SPICE® assessments and functional safety audits be combined?
3. Team composition and model additions
4. Automotive SPICE® assessments and safety audits have proven their worth

Both Automotive SPICE® and development according to ISO 26262 require numerous evaluation methods and activities. For a more detailed understanding of the combination, we highlight the following topics in this article:

1. Overlaps between Automotive SPICE® assessments and safety audits
2. Options for combining Automotive SPICE® assessments and safety audits
3. Implementation of a combined evaluation.

What are safety assessments?

Safety assessments can be carried out as often as required during the project process (functional safety concept, system design, etc.). They are only completed at the end of the project once all the evidence is available. For the safety assessment, the assessor needs a deep technical understanding of the product in order to be able to assess the appropriateness of the safety measures implemented in the product. They must also evaluate the correctness of the safety analyses performed, such as FMEDA or FTA.

Safety assessments pursue a different goal than Automotive SPICE® assessments. It therefore makes sense not to combine them per se, but to consider and apply the synergies between Automotive SPICE® assessments and safety audits. This avoids a considerable amount of additional work, as both take a lot of time individually.

How can Automotive SPICE® assessments and functional safety audits be combined?

Safety audits and Automotive SPICE® assessments require a great deal of effort. It is therefore advisable to combine both models in a meaningful way so that there is no unnecessary overlap. This avoids a considerable amount of additional work.

In the combined approach, the Automotive SPICE® requirements and the ISO 26262 requirements are examined first. Both have a large overlap with Automotive SPICE®. By combining both models, both Automotive SPICE® requirements and ISO 26262 requirements are considered in the evaluation - and the existing synergies are thus optimally taken into account. The additional process and method requirements of ISO 26262 are also examined using FS-specific questions.

Team composition and model additions

Other aspects such as team composition and model supplementation must also be taken into account when linking Automotive SPICE® assessments and safety audits in order to be able to carry out a combination of the two effectively and efficiently.

FS experts should therefore also be represented in the assessment team. One team member takes on the role of safety auditor - the requirements of ISO 26262 regarding the independence of the auditor must always be observed. The review should also be carried out by the same team over a longer period of time.

As the evaluation always requires a great deal of effort, it makes sense to plan the time sequence and dependencies well. However, analyses, verification methods, tests and process audits as well as validations also take time - but less in combination than without linking Automotive SPICE® assessments and safety audits.

Automotive SPICE® assessments and safety audits have proven their worth

All in all, an intelligent combination of Automotive SPICE® assessments and safety audits has proven itself in practice due to the overlap between the two models in terms of process requirements. On the one hand, time and costs are saved. And on the other, the enormous amount of work involved. This means benefits for the company and the customer. Even greater benefits can be achieved through good planning and coordination of all necessary evaluation methods.

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