Lesson 13 of 16 · Automation and AI · Automotive SPICE, the vital 20 %
Red pen: correct the brochure
Claims about ASPICE in slide decks, blog posts and product pages are often slightly wrong in the same few ways. Here is an invented brochure for an AI engineering tool. Mark each claim, then check yourself against the sources.
The brochure is fictional and so is its tool. Some claims are right. This is interleaved practice across the whole course, so answer each one from memory before reading the explanation.
The brochure, claim by claim
"ASPICE 4.1 brings cybersecurity into the model with the new SEC.1–SEC.4 processes."
"Our dashboard rates every process attribute from Level 0 to Level 5."
"Bidirectional traceability is what lifts you to Level 2."
"When our traceability check is green, compliance is proven."
"Our release gates follow the phases of the ASPICE V-model."
"We check every system requirement in SYS.1 for atomicity."
"ASPICE requires verification to be performed independently of development."
"Adopt our tool and your projects are ASPICE Level 2."
"Every software verification result traces back to the risk it mitigates, as SWE.6 requires."
"Tool-enforced workflows and CI can serve as your process performance strategy at Level 2."
"Evidence written up just before the assessment may be disregarded, so we capture it as the work happens."
"Every requirement must have a downstream link; anything without one is an error."
"Using AI to write code doesn't lower your rating by itself; how you control and check its output does."
"You can trace groups of requirements to a component; linking every single requirement isn't required."
"A complete, consistent baseline is good evidence to support a gate approval."
"Prompts, model versions and settings used to generate code belong under configuration management."
Rewrite it
Rewrite "When our traceability check is green, compliance is proven" so that it is true and still a selling point.
"Every commit is checked for complete, well-formed trace links, and every change leaves a recorded review, so your assessor finds traceability evidence and consistency evidence captured as the work happened."
Rewrite "Adopt our tool and your projects are ASPICE Level 2" the same way.
"The tool produces evidence for the level 2 practices your assessor will look at (planned and monitored work, controlled and reviewed work products, baselines), so a well-run project can show it is managed."
Your win: you can read anything written about ASPICE, spot the usual mistakes, and fix them without losing the point being made. The misconceptions sheet keeps the list, with sources.
To keep it: import this lesson's Anki deck (how).
Read next
Check any claim yourself: the process list in PAM §3.1, pp. 14–16, the level rule in Table 9, p. 22, the separate cybersecurity volume in the Guidelines preface, the traceability rules in Guidelines §2.3.4, pp. 55–60, and AI assistance in §2.5.5, pp. 98–99.
Found a claim in the wild you're unsure about? Paste it to your teacher and check it against the PAM together.