Development Guidelines for Vehicle Based Software

The MISRA Guidelines provide important advice to the automotive industry for the creation and application of safe, reliable software within vehicles.

The Guidelines are intended for use by all those involved in the creation, procurement and support of vehicle based software.

Users may be within vehicle design and manufacturing companies, component suppliers, development tool suppliers and diagnostic equipment suppliers.

Uses for the MISRA Guidelines include:

• guidance for creating contracts and specifications for software procurement
• an introduction to issues of automotive software reliability
• a basis for training requirements within the automotive industry
• guidance for company quality procedures
• guidance for management on resource requirements
• a basis for assessment
• a foundation for a standard.

WHY were they produced?

Special guidance for automotive software is needed because there are important differences between software and other forms of automotive engineering and components.

There are also differences between automotive software applications and applications in other industrial sectors.

WHAT is the scope?

The Guidelines provide a link between established automotive engineering disciplines and software engineering.

WHAT are the principles?

The Guidelines encapsulate many principles and concepts, such as:

• safety, like justice and democracy, must be seen to be present
• software robustness, reliability and safety, like quality, should be built in rather than added on
• the requirements for human safety and security of property can be in conflict. Safety must take precedence
• system design should consider both random and systematic faults
• it is necessary to demonstrate robustness, not rely on the absence of failures
• safety considerations should apply across the design, manufacture, operation, servicing and disposal of products.

The 80 pages of the MISRA Guidelines give over 450 recommendations, presented against the background of a software lifecycle.

Subjects covered include:

Assessment Control systems design Controllability categories Diagnostics Distributed systems Documentation Education and experience Emerging technologies Fault management Floating point arithmetic Human factors

Management responsibilities Noise and EMC Programming Project planning Quality assurance Real-time effects Safety analysis Software lifecycles Software metrics Subcontracting Verification and validation

WHEN are they useful?

The MISRA Guidelines are forward-looking, providing guidance for the development of both systems in use today and the advanced features being planned for the next decade.

WHO produced the Guidelines?

The MISRA Guidelines are the culmination of research into the worldwide state-of-the-art in the automotive industry and in other related sectors, such as the aerospace and process industries.

They were produced by a consortium of organizations formed in response to the UK Safety Critical Systems Research Programme, supported by the Department of Trade and Industry and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. The contributors to the Guidelines were:

AB Automotive Electronics Ltd AP Borg and Beck Delco Electronics Department of Trade and Industry Department of Transport Ford Motor Company Ltd Jaguar Cars Ltd Lotus Engineering

Lucas Electronics Rolls-Royce and Associates Ltd Rover Group Ltd The Centre for Software Engineering Ltd The Motor Industry Research Association The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders Ltd The University of Leeds

WHERE can they be obtained?

Copies of the MISRA Guidelines, supporting reports and information about workshops and the MISRA Guidelines Forum can be obtained from the MISRA Project Manager at MIRA.