Hybrid Approach on the Project Development Within Automotive Industry

Abstract

AbstractThe automotive industry is one of the most spread and synergic industries in dynamic markets, gathering around many different sectors from material extractions to robotics and cloud computing. The current research analyses the influences and particularities of project management and identifies the challenges and advantages of the two principal methodologies used in the software development projects within the automotive industry, the Agile and the Waterfall ones. Once with I4.0 and worldwide digitalization, the global software development industry becomes a very significant and dynamic pillar in the contemporary environment. It is more and more evident that almost all devices and machines in our lives become interconnected and more intelligent (software-driven). From ordinary smartphones to complex, innovative airplanes, the automotive industry is part of global digitalization. The software development industry evolution has two essential characteristics: agility and speed. These aspects have a real impact in all other industries, including software development, practically in any product or process development. In the last 30 years, automotive development started to focus significantly on vehicle’s “brain” capabilities. In the automotive world, automation and controls represented the forerunner of the software development industry, but today, logic and the car’s computers started to work with artificial intelligence. The complexity and the development dimensions are many times increased, and the industry took significant steps forward. The safety aspects of the vehicle are crucial for the entire product development. For this reason, the industry has many regulations and standards that ensure the product’s quality and safety. Therefore, in automotive, the software development is not aligned with the general software development from the speed and agility point of view and the paper shows a possible harmonization of the methodology in automotive software Project development through a hybrid solution.KeywordsAutomotiveSoftware project managementHybrid methodologies