New Project Landscape for More Speed and Reliability
When developing vehicle software, it is important to build a bridge between modern, agile development methods and the high safety and documentation requirements of the automotive environment. IAV meets this challenge with an agile project landscape developed in-house.
«Our agile project landscape is based on tools and process steps that complement each other optimally and flexibly. We also provide our software specialists with the necessary structural and cultural environment.»
— Team Manager Functional Software in the Embedded Security department at IAV
Features come into being during three-week sprints
The development process is based on the Scrum method, where the implementation is organized in three-week sprints. The contents of such sprints are usually features, i.e. specifically defined vehicle functions. In order to quickly achieve testable results, not all constraints or possible errors are taken into account in the early stages of development – refinement, optimization and hardening follow iteratively in each sprint.
A feature is always processed by “Pair Programming,” i.e. by two programmers according to the dual control principle. The team of two supervises its development content through all project phases, from architecture definition, fine design and coding to testing.
The concept of “test-driven development” is also frequently used in this process: Whether it’s a digital vehicle key or an assistance function – if we look at features from the user’s point of view, a suitable functional test can be defined even before the actual software. In such cases, the test is created first and only then the software code. In the course of project development, more and more individual tested aspects then switch from “red” to “green.” The team of two is also responsible for the functional tests that verify and validate the result of each iteration. The goal is always to provide regular, quality-assured deliveries.
Modern project management tools automatically keep logs
This approach is supported by the use of modern development and project management tools – such as the Confluence documentation and communication platform and the Jira administration and reporting software. In addition, specific tools such as Bitbucket, a web-based service for managing version statuses, are used.
«Tools like Confluence and Jira offer the great advantage in project management that they generate metrics and reports automatically. This relieves the programmers of routine work, while at the same time the entire team has an overview of the project status at all times.»
— Team Manager Functional Software in the Embedded Security department at IAV
This leads to a real win-win situation: The programming teams can work independently and expediently. And IAV can deliver quality-assured, even faster results of the highest standard to its customers.
