“ASQMS Expert Commentary” is an article series on ASQMS written by automotive software quality experts around the world, based on their own insights, practices, implementation, or evaluation of ASQMS.
Yiguang Zhao
Head of Quality Management System Business of Geely Automobile Group | He led the formulation of the standard as a " Quality Management System for the Full-Process-Competitiveness of the Automobile Industry " and made it for Geely as a national quality benchmark | Member of the Working Group for the Drafting of the ASQMS Standard
In today's critical period of rapid transformation of the automotive industry, the trend to intelligence and connectivity is becoming more and more obvious. Automotive software continues to grow in importance throughout the automotive system as a key determinant of vehicle performance, safety, and user experience.
ASQMS was born as an organization-level certification standard with a clear positioning. Whether you are focusing on pure software development or providing integrated software and hardware systems, ASQMS can provide comprehensive and practical quality management guidance. For software-only enterprises, ASQMS can help them establish a sound quality management system to ensure the stability, reliability and security of the software. For software and hardware integration enterprises, the standard can promote the collaborative work of software and hardware and improve the quality of the overall system. According to relevant data, more and more companies in the automotive industry are beginning to pay attention to software quality management, and ASQMS meets this need. With concise content and easy implementation, it provides an efficient quality management path for enterprises and helps them stand out in the fierce market competition.
Key features of ASQMS
In the era of smart cars, in order to better serve users and provide them with more personalized and customized functional services, a large amount of usage data will be collected in order to provide richer functions and analyze users' preferences and usage habits, so as to provide differentiated services and control strategies.
(1) Concise and practical content
ASQMS focuses on the key processes that directly affect the quality of the software, and does not impose specific hard requirements on the output, giving enterprises full flexibility. At the same time, it supports a variety of development models, whether it is agile development or traditional waterfall development, and the appropriate quality management method can be found under the framework of ASQMS. This simple and practical design allows enterprises to quickly understand and implement standards, and focus more on improving software quality.
(2) Good versatility
ASQMS is versatile and can be used for all types of software in the automotive ecosystem. It covers the whole life cycle of software, from requirements analysis, design, development, testing to maintenance, there are corresponding quality management requirements. Moreover, ASQMS is only for management and does not involve specific technical requirements, which makes it easy for enterprises of different sizes and technical backgrounds to apply the standard and improve the level of software quality management.
(3) Treat different software differently
ASQMS classifies software into Class 1 and Class 2 to avoid over-management. ASQMS has different requirements for different types of software, taking into account the characteristics and risk levels of each type of software. For example, for safety-critical software, standards may impose stricter quality management requirements; For some non-critical software, the requirements can be appropriately reduced to improve the pertinence and efficiency of management.
(4) Determine the scope boundary based on consumer risk
ASQMS defines the scope boundaries with a focus on the risk to the automotive consumer, ensuring that there are no blind spots and no over-bounds management. This means that the standard fully considers the various risks that software quality problems may bring to car consumers, such as safety risks, performance risks, reliability risks, etc., in the development process. By accurately determining the scope boundary, ASQMS can effectively ensure the quality of automotive software and provide consumers with safer and more reliable automotive products.
(5) International universality
ASQMS standards are published in Chinese and English at the same time, which has strong international universality. This not only facilitates the integration of domestic enterprises with the international market, but also provides strong guidance for the improvement of global automotive software quality. With the globalization of the automotive industry, the international versatility of ASQMS will play an increasingly important role in promoting the common improvement of the global automotive software quality management level.
(6) The structure is flexible and expandable
The architecture of ASQMS is flexible and can be updated as technology and management evolutions in the future. In the era of rapid technological development, software technology and management concepts are constantly updated, and the flexible architecture of ASQMS can adapt to these changes in a timely manner, ensuring that standards remain advanced and practical. This provides a sustainable quality management framework for enterprises to continuously improve software quality and adapt to market changes and challenges.
Application and prospects of ASQMS
(1) Already adopted by OEMs
ASQMS has entered many OEMs, such as Geely Automobile. The adoption of ASQMS standards in these companies has resulted in significant improvements in software quality management. Through the strict management of the whole life cycle of software, all links from demand analysis to maintenance are more standardized and efficient, which provides a solid guarantee for the quality and safety of automotive software. For example, in the demand analysis stage, we can more accurately grasp consumer needs and risk points to ensure the practicability and security of software functions; In the development stage, strictly follow the standard requirements to improve the stability and reliability of the software; In the testing stage, more scientific testing methods are adopted to ensure that the software is free of vulnerabilities and failures.
(2) Challenges
Despite its many advantages, ASQMS also comes with some challenges in its application. On the one hand, there are differences in software development and management levels in different enterprises, and the implementation of ASQMS standards requires a certain amount of time and resources. Some small businesses may have difficulties in terms of human and material resources, and it is difficult to quickly adapt to the standard requirements. On the other hand, as technology continues to evolve, new software quality issues may emerge, and ASQMS standards need to be constantly updated and improved to meet these challenges.
(3) Huge potential and expectations
However, the potential of ASQMS is huge and worth looking forward to. With the accelerated development of intelligent and connected automobiles, the position of software in automobiles will become more and more important, and the requirements for software quality will also become higher and higher. ASQMS will play an even more important role in the future as a standard specifically for automotive software quality management. It can not only help enterprises improve software quality, but also promote the healthy development of the entire automotive industry. At the same time, with the continuous enhancement of international popularity, ASQMS is expected to become an important reference standard for global automotive software quality management, bringing safer and more reliable automotive products to global automotive consumers.
