WHITEPAPER

Driving Compliance with

Functional Safety Standards
FOR AUTOMOTIVE COMPONENTS IN
SOFTWARE-DRIVEN, CONNECTED SYSTEMS
Today’s automobile is a technology hub on wheels,
with connected systems and embedded software
that offer everything from communications and
route planning to automated driving functions
such as collision avoidance and lane departure This paper looks at the
warning systems. The demand for electric vehicle challenges companies
advancements continues as governments around face when addressing the
the world work on the development and adoption intersection of functional
of these types of vehicles largely in response to safety and efficient,
environmental threats. In addition, autonomous collaborative product
vehicle development continues with accelerated development. It describes
development as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. how a Fortune 100
semiconductor company is
While it’s still too early to predict all the ways that meeting these challenges
driverless cars will transform our lives, there is for its automotive-
certainly the huge potential for making driving safer related technology
and drastically reducing the number of traffic-related with an integrated and
deaths per year. compliance- ready platform
But before autonomous vehicles can improve safety, that streamlines the
developers need to make sure the software itself is development of products
safe—that is, working correctly in every situation. that adhere to relevant
functional safety standards.
For that reason, the automotive industry is primarily
focused on the need to comply with functional safety
standards. These evolving standards—in tandem
with the increased complexity of the systems
themselves—present an array of new challenges
for product development teams, which must
understand how functional safety standards impact
product lifecycles in order to manage their tools and
processes effectively.

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Putting Functional Safety in the Driver’s Seat
In the automotive industry, software-driven and
connected systems have become the mainstay
of innovation. Manufacturers are focusing on
pivoting from traditional manufacturing focused
on hardware to a digital experience. Vehicles
now ship with tens of millions of lines of code
that manage engine and transmission controls,
braking, steering, and a host of diagnostic
information on every subsystem—and these are
just the cars that still need drivers.
ISO 26262 is an international
standard that defines functional
safety for automotive equipment
throughout the development
lifecycle of all automotive
electronic and electrical
safety-related systems.
In self-driving vehicles, these lines of code
will rise to the billions. This is why it’s no
longer enough to simply verify that a car’s
physical parts meet various safety standards.
Today’s automotive designers must also
address safety in system, hardware, and
software design. When the software works as
planned, autonomous vehicles can parallel
park themselves, automatically adjust speeds,
and switch from electric to gas power in an
As more and more products and systems incorporate complex
microelectronics and software, it is increasingly challenging to assess
and implement safety-related functions.”
UL LLC, A Global Safety Certification Company
DRIVING COMPLIANCE WITH FUNCTIONAL SAFETY STANDARDS | JAMASOFTWARE.COM 03
instant, offering potential benefits that
range from reduced environmental impact
and safer roadways to increased mobility
for seniors and the disabled. Consumers
can save trillions of dollars due to lower
fuel consumption, accident avoidance,
productivity gains, and congestion avoidance,
but this shift can also leave customers
concerned about safety and security threats.
In acknowledgment of the auto industry’s
increased reliance on software, the
International Organization for Standardization
created ISO 26262 in 2011 and released
an updated version in 2018 as a detailed,
industry-specific guideline for all software in
automotive systems and equipment. Adapted
from the more generic industrial functional
safety standard, IEC 61508, ISO 26262
ensures automotive components perform as
they should.
ISO 26262 provides a risk-management
approach that includes the determination of
risk classes — known as automotive safety
integrity levels, or ASILs — which are similar
to the safety integrity levels specified in the
IEC 61508 standard. And every technology
and software component throughout the
automotive supply chain needs to comply
with relevant parts of the ISO 26262
functional safety standard.
Improving Product Development

The vast increase in the amount of software underpinning today’s vehicles, combined with the
stringent requirements for safety and reliability, are driving unprecedented levels of complexity in
product development. If companies don’t have the right tools to track development and document
their products’ compliance, they risk drowning in the challenges.

CASE STUDY
One Fortune 100 semiconductor company
experienced this increased complexity
firsthand. Because the company bases its
business on constant innovation, it faces the
same product development challenges as
many businesses:
• Supporting increased interdependency
among vertical groups
• Facilitating external collaboration with
partners and consortiums
• Increasing integration at each step of
product development to accelerate time-to-
market for high-quality products
• Tracking the multitude of details required for
functional safety compliance, for example,
collecting and collating evidence that teams
are following processes
To meet these challenges, the
semiconductor company set about
transforming its business using standardized
development processes and application
life-cycle management (ALM) tools. ALM
supports the development process from
initial planning through product retirement,
including tracking application changes.
Achieving transformation of the
development process means the
semiconductor company needed to:
• Reduce more than 50 disparate tools and
applications to a manageable set of best-
of-class solutions, including ALM software
that supports ISO 26262 compliance
• Provide support for new functional safety
and quality regulations so development
teams can pass product audits and avoid
costs and delays of rework associated
with product and audit failures

• Add a global data repository and data

analysis capabilities

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Adopting Modern Software that Supports ISO 26262
As the semiconductor company began winnowing its toolset, it considered what the perfect
ALM solution might look like. The company quickly realized the software would have to
provide, at minimum, the following:
• End-to-end traceability of the entire
V-model, including requirements,
functions, implementations, and tests
throughout the lifecycle process
Creating an Integrated ALM Solution with Jama Software at its Core
As the semiconductor company began putting
together an integrated ALM solution for
development teams within its business units,
it turned to the Jama ConnectTM development
platform it was already using elsewhere in
the organization. For automotive electronics
providers, Jama provides a single platform to
manage requirements, risk and test throughout
the development lifecycle. It enables the
management and validation of complex
systems requirements while ensuring functional
safety verification.
Certified by internationally-recognized testing
body TÜV SÜD for developing safety-related
products to ISO 26262 (up to ASIL D) and IEC
61508 (up to SIL 3) standards, Jama offers a
rigorous development environment that the
semiconductor company knew would help it
meet its functional safety requirements.
Jama’s platform provides built-in
frameworks, collaboration, and
impact analysis in real time.
The Jama Connect for Automotive solution
provides built-in frameworks aligned to
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• Requirements management
• Validation and verification
• Change management
industry standards and regulations including
ISO ;26262:2018 and ASPICE. Jama Connect
provides collaboration, hazard and risk
analysis and traceability. With Jama Connect’s
live traceability, semiconductor, and other
connected-device-related developers and
manufacturers, can track relationships and gain
visibility into gaps in coverage, enabling them
to work faster without sacrificing safety
or quality.
Jama provides the the semiconductor
company’s development team with workflows
for defining, building, and testing automotive-
related products that meet critical functional
safety requirements
What’s more, by enabling companies to reuse
requirements across design teams and platform
generations, Jama helps accelerate product
design—a key element of the semiconductor
company’s business strategy.
The resulting integrated application life-
cycle management solution links up the best
processes and tools and provides a single
portal for accessing and analyzing a master
data repository.
Gaining Business Value From Streamlined Development

With standardized processes and a core group of innovative solutions, the semiconductor
company has removed many obstacles to development, allowing it to do the following:

• Deliver products to market faster -
By getting requirements right the first
time, the semiconductor company is
accelerating development cycles and
delivering better products that achieve
higher customer satisfaction.
• Improve quality - The semiconductor
• Reduce product development costs -
Through improved productivity and
increased efficiency across development
teams and business units, the
semiconductor company is reducing
the cost of product development. With
Jama Connect, teams can create a set
of development-related assets once and
reuse them across projects to eliminate the
need to reinvent and reduce the threat of
inconsistencies.
company eliminates a large percentage of
product defects by effectively managing
requirements, which helps eliminate costly
manufacturing rework. Jama Connect helps
the company detect problems early, when
they’re less expensive to fix.

Shifting into High Gear With Faster Development and Safety

When it comes to automobiles that depend
on software from hundreds of vendors
to operate properly, functional safety
requirements have become a driving force
— and, for some, a stumbling block— in
modern product development.
With Jama Connect, the Fortune 100
semiconductor company developed an
integrated ALM solution that moves quality
and compliance from a manual task to one that’s
incorporated seamlessly into existing workflows
and best practices.
As a result, teams are spending more time on
engineering and less time on understanding
and managing compliance processes and
documentation. The company now designs
products more efficiently and releases them to
the market faster.

ABOUT JAMA SOFTWARE

Jama Software provides the leading platform for requirements, risk, and test management.
With Jama ConnectTM, engineering teams realize improved cycle times, increased quality,
improved time to compliance and faster time-to-market. Jama has a growing customer base of
more than 600 organizations, across 30 countries, serving the following industries: aerospace
and defense, medical device development, automotive, semiconductor, software development,
financial services and insurance, and industrial manufacturing. To learn more, please visit us at
jamasoftware.com.