Requirements engineering in automotive development-experiences and challenges

This paper summarizes problems, solutions and challenges of requirements engineering gained from the development of software-based automotive systems at DaimlerChrysler. The technical domains covered include telematics and entertainment, body electronics and chassis control for both passenger cars and commercial vehicles. Experiences include domain-specific issues, which are related to the different content of requirements in particular application areas and its specific notations, techniques, or process steps, as well as domain-independent issues which are largely independent from requirements content and related to the administration and management of requirements. We argue that the issues presented here, while not necessarily being in the current focus of the requirements engineering research area, are of crucial importance for improving requirements engineering in the development of software for automotive systems, and very likely, to many other kinds of systems as well.