Term

Origin

Description

Acceptance testing

ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765

Formal testing conducted to enable a user, customer, or authorized entity to determine whether to accept a system or component.

Activity

Automotive SPICE

Execution of a task by a stakeholder or an involved party.

Application parameter

Automotive SPICE V3.1

An application parameter is a parameter containing data applied to the system or software functions, behavior or properties. The notion of application parameter is expressed in two ways:

firstly, the logical specification (including name, description, unit, value domain or threshold values or characteristic curves, respectively), and,

secondly, the actual quantitative data value it receives by means of data application.

Approval

Automotive SPICE V4.0

Written statement that a deliverable is capable for its intended use.

Baseline

ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765

A specification or product that has been formally reviewed and agreed upon, that thereafter serves as the basis for further development, and can be changed only through formal change control procedures.

Black-box testing

Automotive SPICE V4.0

Method of testing where tests are developed without knowledge of the internal structure and mechanisms of the tested object- under-test.

Coding

ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765

The transforming of logic and data from design specifications (design descriptions) into programming language.

Deliverable

PMBOK® Guide – Fourth Edition

Any unique and verifiable product, result, or capability to perform a service that must be produced to complete a process, phase, or project. Often used more narrowly in reference to an external deliverable, which is a deliverable that is subject to approval by the project sponsor or customer.

Error

ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765

The difference between a computed, observed, or measured value or condition and the true, specified, or theoretically correct value or condition.

Fault

ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765

A manifestation of an error in software.

Functional requirement

ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765

A statement that identifies what a product or process must accomplish to produce required behavior and/or results.

Functional specification

ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765

A document that specifies the functions that a system or component must perform. Often part of a requirements specification.

Functional testing

ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765

Testing conducted to evaluate the compliance of a system or component with specified functional requirements.

Hardware

ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765

Physical equipment used to process, store, or transmit computer programs or data.

Hyperparameter

Automotive SPICE V4.0

In machine learning, a hyperparameter is a parameter whose value is used to control the training of the ML model. Its value must be set between training iterations. Examples: learning rate, loss function, model depth, regularization constants.

Integration

Automotive SPICE V3.1

A process of combining items to larger items up to an overall system.

Integration testing

Automotive SPICE V3.1

Testing in which items (software items, hardware items, or system items) are combined and tested to evaluate the interaction among them.

Information need

The need for characterizing process or product related effectiveness and efficiency.

Machine Learning (ML)

Automotive SPICE V4.0

In Automotive SPICE, Machine Learning (ML) describes the ability of software to learn from specific training data and to apply this knowledge to other similar tasks

Measure

Automotive SPICE V4.0

An activity to achieve a certain intent

Measurement

Oxford Dictionary

“The activity to find the size, quantity or degree of something”

Metric

Automotive SPICE V4.0

A quantitative or qualitative measurable indicator that matches information needs.

ODD

PAS 1883:2020

Operational Design Domain (ODD) is operating conditions under which a given overall system or feature thereof is specifically designed to function.

This includes, but is not limited to, environmental, geographical, and time-of-day restrictions, and/or the requisite presence or absence of certain traffic or roadway characteristics.

Project

ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765

Endeavor with defined start and finish dates undertaken to create a product or service in accordance with specified resources and requirements

Quality assurance

ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765

A planned and systematic pattern of all actions necessary to provide adequate confidence that an item or product conforms to established technical requirements.

Release

A physical product compilation to be transferred to the customer

Regression verification

Automotive SPICE V4.0

Selective re-verification of elements to verify that modifications have not caused unintended effects

Risk

ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765

The combination of the probability of occurrence and the consequences of a given future undesirable event

Software component

Automotive SPICE V4.0

As a result of the decomposition of the architecture at software level, the software is decomposed across appropriate hierarchical levels of components down to the lowest-level software components in a conceptual model;

or a representation of a software component under verification such as source code, an object file, a library, an executable, or executable model as input to verification

Software Unit

Automotive SPICE V4.0

Can be

a representation of a software element, which is decided not to be further subdivided and that is a part of a software component at the lowest level, in a conceptual model

or a representation of a software unit under verification such as source code, an object file, a library, an executable, or an executable model as input to verification

Software element

Automotive SPICE V4.0

Refers to a →Software Component or a →Software Unit

Stakeholder requirements

Automotive SPICE V4.0

Any type of requirement for the stakeholders in the given context,

e.g. customer requirement, supplier internal requirements (product-specific, platform etc.), legal requirements, regulatory requirements, statutory requirements, industry sector requirements, international standards, codes of practice etc. …

System

Automotive SPICE V4.0

A collection of interacting system elements organized to accomplish a specific functionality or set of functionalities within a specific environment.

System Element

Automotive SPICE V4.0

System elements can be

logical and structural objects at the architectural and design level. Such elements can be further decomposed into more fine- grained sub-elements of the architecture or design across appropriate hierarchical levels;

or physical representations of these objects, or a combination,

e.g. peripherals, sensors, actuators, mechanical parts, software executables.

Note:

An aspect of semiconductor development (systems-on-chip or microcontrollers are systems in that they comprise a mechanical housing, EE hardware, and firmware) pre-silicon verification is performed. This can be done in the context of SYS.3 and, also, SYS.4 and SYS.5, respectively (e.g. by back-to-back tests).

Unit test

Automotive SPICE V4.0

Testing of individual software units

Task

A definition, but not the execution, of a coherent and set of atomic actions.

Validation measure

Automotive SPICE V4.0

Validation measure is an umbrella term for e.g. operational use case testing under real-life conditions, highly accelerated life testing (HALT), simulations under real-life conditions, end user trials, panel or blind tests, or expert panels

Verification

Automotive SPICE V4.0

Verification is confirmation, through the provision of objective evidence, that an element fulfils the specified requirements

Verification measure

Automotive SPICE V4.0

Verification measure is an umbrella term for test cases, measurements, calculations, simulations, reviews, and analyses. In particular domains particular verification measures may not be applicable, e.g. software units generally cannot be verified by means of calculations or analyses.

White-box testing

Automotive SPICE V4.0

Verification method where verification measures are developed based on the knowledge of the element’s internal structure and mechanisms