Siemens Automotive SA

Challenge

Increasing complexity in software development environment

Solution

Serena Dimensions

Result

• Increased change management efficiencies
• Improved quality and security
• Increased productivity
• Reduced development costs

Siemens Automotive Makes New Strides in Software Development

Siemens Automotive SA in Toulouse, France, a subsidiary of Holding France, is considered the world leader in car electronics, wiring, electrical motors, receivers, and fuel injection. The company, which counts 1,400 employees including some 600 engineers and technicians, works closely with various automotive manufacturers to design the electronic architecture of cars. The global company, Siemens, has a presence in 132 countries over five continents. It markets 100,000 products in multiple sectors including energy, lighting, telecommunications, medicine, computers, and transportation.

Process automation plays an important role in managing all aspects of recent commercial software development at Siemens Automotive SA in Toulouse. It provides the versions of product components as well as tracking and managing changes all within a user-defined process workflow. Process automation creates a "closed loop" over the entire change process from start to finish.

Siemens Automotive SA in Toulouse first acquired Dimensions in 1993 to implement process automation in its Advanced Development and Common Function Department.

Serena Dimensions is a closed-loop process automation system that enables organizations to organize and manage the changes affecting their software, hardware, and documentation assets more efficiently.

The goals of Siemens Automotive Toulouse in acquiring Dimensions were to implement integrated change management and technical documentation management, to reduce development time in the long term, to improve control over software, to reduce risks, and to achieve ISO 9000 standards.

The Advanced Development and Common Development Function Department's Software Tool Manager, Patrick Borgna, said "Previously, we had a very structured software development unit, which was charged with the intricate task of process automation. "From 1989 to 1992, our team was busy developing CASE tools and, while our development platform was sophisticated, it did not permit simultaneous development of variants."

Borgna explained that this platform also did not allow integrated change management nor technical documentation management. "We had to find something else to facilitate planning and to contain costs," he said. "Our software applications had multiplied so much and contained so many versions that they required an efficient process automation tool to keep in check ... It became just too complex to manage our software development activities without such help. Our system was manual, prone to error, and on the brink of collapsing. We needed a new solution."

There was also a quality issue to consider, Borgna added. "Our quality team was demanding new ways to surpass quality levels while keeping costs down. Our in-house system did not allow us to improve our quality levels."

As a result, Siemens Automotive SA in Toulouse conducted a special study to analyze its process automation needs and to evaluate process automation tools available in the marketplace. "After comparing (process automation) products, we determined that Dimensions was the most appropriate tool for our requirements," Borgna said.

Advantages Extend the Across the Enterprise

According to Borgna, one of the major advantages of Dimensions is that it sits on top of a standard Oracle database. "The product also meets our expectations in the areas of process management, change management, and multi objects management. Among other benefits, Dimensions has a friendly user interface which is common to all the users. The product allows data integrity as it is integrated with other tools. Furthermore, it ensures data security as developers cannot change the source code without approval," Borgna said. It is these special features, he added, that distinguish Dimensions from its competition.

With Dimensions, the software development team is able to use build procedures to generate program executable. "These build procedures support the product lifecycle," Borgna said. "As it is flexible, Dimensions easily adapts to our norms. The benefit is that we do not have to tailor our procedures to the tool."

Software Manager for the Chassis Division Eric Roques said his unit is working on software specifications, which are constantly being modified and include 57 versions. "Dimensions allows us to go back instantly to previous versions without any problems. In the past, this process alone was very time-consuming."

While previously the source code and the documentation resided in different areas, they are now linked in Dimensions and hosted on a network of (Windows) PC, HP UX, VAX VMS platforms.

Dimensions is used to develop software applications for the management of automatic transmissions; the automatic control of car seats; and the management of the integrated switching unit for French car manufacturers Peugeot and Renault. These car body applications all reside inside the car.

"We are very satisfied with Dimensions," Borgna concluded. "The tool is flexible enough to meet our needs and to help us achieve new strides in software development.