VectorCAST ISO-26262 Factsheet EN

Software Testing
Using VectorCAST for ISO 26262

Software Verification and Validation for Automotive Functional Safety
The Importance of Functional Safety for Automotive

Highlights
Applications
> Supports coverage metrics at the software unit
level required by ISO 26262
Automotive Market Trends > Statement
Over the past decades, software has played an ever more > Branch
increasing role in the design of automotive systems. > MC/DC
> Supports all levels of coverage at the software
Automobiles are moving away from hardware-based
architectural level required by ISO 26262
innovations to software-based innovations. According to > Function Coverage
McKinsey, in 2010 the average vehicle contained 10 million > Call Coverage
lines of code. Today there are some vehicles with more than > Requirement to test case mapping
150 million lines of code. (McKinsey & Company, “Rethinking > Fault Injection
> Test execution on host, simulator, and embedded
car software and electronics architecture”, Burkacky,
Deichmann, Doll, and Knochenhauer, Feb 2018) Clearly, car target systems
manufacturers are counting on software to provide market
differentiation.
McKinsey identifies four examples of how software is
enabling critical automotive innovations: Connectivity, Supports all Coverage Metrics at the Software Unit
Autonomous Driving, Electrification and Diverse Mobility. Level Required by ISO 26262
In all these innovations, it is clear that software safety and ISO 26262-6:2018 Table 9 lists the structural coverage
quality will play a major role in improving consumer metrics recommended or highly recommended for each
acceptance and limiting manufacturer liability. ASIL. These metrics include statement coverage, branch
To address these safety and quality concerns the coverage and MC/DC (Modified Condition/Decision
automotive industry has adopted the ISO 26262 standard Coverage). Coverage metrics are automatically calculated
which addresses best practices for the development of by VectorCAST after each unit test case is executed.
electrical and electronic systems. VectorCAST provides a coverage viewer to easily identify
how the code has been covered by each of the coverage
The VectorCAST Test Automation Platform types required by ISO 26262. The viewer will indicate if the
The VectorCAST family of tools is used by software code has been fully covered, partially covered or not covered
developers worldwide to perform unit, integration, and for each of the coverage types. An expandable MC/DC
system testing of complex enterprise and embedded equivalence matrix is supplied directly in the viewer, and the
software systems and is well suited to support many of the matrix is also included in the VectorCAST reports.
software activities required for ISO 26262 verification.
VectorCAST Certification
VectorCAST is certified by TÜV SÜD for use in an
ISO 26262 standard-conforming development process for
any ASIL. This certification allows customers to develop
with confidence, and gives quality auditors a consistent,
recognized foundation on which to base their assessments.
For customers requiring even higher confidence in their
configuration, Vector offers a VectorCAST Tool Qualification
package to prove that a particular testing setup is
operating correctly.
Fact Sheet : Using VectorCAST for ISO 26262
Supports All Coverage Metrics at the Software Test Execution on Host, Simulator, and Embedded Target
Architectural Level Required by ISO 26262 Systems
The ISO 26262-6:2018 standard goes on to identify in Table Section 11 of ISO 26262-6:2018 calls out the requirements
12 the requirements for structural coverage at the soft- specific to the testing of embedded software. In this
ware architectural level. The software architecture level is section test environments for conducting the software
defined as the context for the software integration and testing of the embedded software are identified.
verification phase. For this phase, the standard requires These environments generally require the ECU hardware
that function coverage and call coverage analysis is recom- for testing. In most cases, this hardware is under
mended depending on the ASIL. VectorCAST automatically development at the start of the project and not available
provides this analysis and also includes this coverage infor- for testing the software.
mation as part of the Coverage Viewer. This makes it easy To lower the risk on the project, host environments or
to spot gaps in the analysis where the tests are not simulators are often used at the start of the project. With
providing adequate coverage. VectorCAST, once the test cases are written they can be
re-used on all targets and in multiple build configurations.
Requirements-based Tests and Testing Metrics For instance, the same test case can be run against versions
Requirements are the starting point for the testing of the application compiled on AURIX™ TriCore™, X86, and
requirements within ISO 26262. A Requirements-based ARM. The re-use of existing test cases is an accepted
test for software unit verification is a highly recommended practice called out in Section 11 of the standard.
method for all ASIL. VectorCAST imports requirements
from your existing requirements repository allowing you to Summary
easily refer to the requirements to derive the test cases. The VectorCAST family of tools provides the most
Requirements can then be linked to test cases. Once the comprehensive platform to efficiently meet the testing
tests are run, the results can be exported back to your requirements of ISO 26262:2018. VectorCAST supports the
requirements repository. If requirements are re-imported, creation and management of test cases to prove that the
VectorCAST will check if any requirements have changed. software requirements have been tested and implemented
The test cases associated with any changed requirement correctly according to the software design and architecture.
are flagged for review to verify the test case is still valid for Additionally, the VectorCAST tools support the capture and
the updated requirement. reporting of structural code coverage at all levels required
by ISO 26262:2018.
Once the Requirements-based tests are run, VectorCAST
will calculate the structural coverage metric and will show
the code coverage in the source code coverage viewer. This More information: www.vector.com/vectorcast
allows for the analysis of the structural coverage and can
assist in exposing shortcomings in the Requirements-based
tests. Coverage metrics are available for ASIL A, B, C and
D.
Fault Injection
Fault injection tests are defined in ISO 26262 as test for
the correctness of the hardware-software interface. These
tests are often difficult to properly stimulate in a test
environment. With VectorCAST, Probe Points can be
written to inject faults and validate the software under
these conditions.
An example would be to force an out-of-range value to be
returned from an analog to digital converter to understand
the behavior of the application as this value is propagated
through the system. VectorCAST Probe Points makes fault
injection simple and repeatable and is available for unit,
integration and system testing.
V2.2 | 2021-04
www.vector.com/contact

VectorCAST ISO-26262 Factsheet EN

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

VectorCAST ISO-26262 Factsheet EN

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

VectorCAST ISO-26262 Factsheet EN

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Software Testing

Using VectorCAST for ISO 26262

The Importance of Functional Safety for Automotive

You might also like