ISO 26262 – Road Vehicles – Functional Safety

Verocel’s Plans and Processes are now approved to the 2018 edition of the ISO26262 standard

ISO 26262 is the functional automotive safety standard for electronic systems which includes both hardware and software.

While there are a number of system, hardware and software development standards and guidelines, none are expressly designed for the automotive life cycle.

ISO 26262 is composed of ten parts as shown in the diagram below. The core parts of ISO 26262 address planning, management of functional safety, hazard and risk analyses, system, hardware and software product development and production and operation. These core parts are encompassed by a set of supporting processes including documentation, configuration and change management and the qualification of software tools.

Unique considerations are given to qualification of both hardware and software components; meaning that these elements may be approved in one platform and would be suitable for reuse in other vehicles or platforms with minimal reverification.

The classic “V” model of software development and verification as it relates to ISO 26262.

The ISO 26262 Part 6 requirements for software encompass the specification, design, implementation, test and verification of requirements sub-phases. One important aspect of ISO 26262 Part 6 compliance is establishing traceability of artifacts produced during the development and verification efforts.

Verocel’s Application Life Cycle Management tool called VeroTrace enables automotive software developers to produce, maintain, control all software life cycle data, regardless of where that data may be stored. VeroTrace also enables developers to establish bi-directional traceability of requirements, design, code and tests artifacts as required by ISO 26262.

The standard ISO 26262 V-model software life cycle diagram is given below. VeroTrace can assist with ensuring bi-directional traceability of all life cycle data items (requirements, design, code, test cases and results, among other features) to establish compliance with ISO 26262 Part 6.

Tools

Whitepaper

ISO 26262 Compliance Using Approved Software Components for Road Vehicles

  • Overview of the standard and focuses on how one can achieve qualification of a software component under ISO 26262;
  • List of key characteristics that a software component should have to be qualified;
  • Recommendations on what additional data, information and artifacts should be included with a qualified software component to ease reuse in other platforms.

Webinar

Verocel presents on ISO 26262 qualification of software components.

For automotive designers seeking help in certifying their software to ISO 26262, Verocel can help. We’ve performed certification on numerous software components and understand how to meet the software component qualification guidelines of ISO 26262 Part 8-12. These components can be COTS software or proprietary software that can be approved on one platform and subsequently reused on other automotive platforms without incurring a large re-certification effort.

If you’d like to discuss your project needs or would like more information please get in touch