CRitical sYSTem engineering AcceLeration

Purpose and goal

Chalmers´s goals in CRYSTAL were to improve requirements engineering as well as validation processes for automotive software. In this context, several possibilities to create and use formal requirements models for understanding and verification were explored. Additionally, the state-of-practice in the embedded industry with respect to model-based engineering was analyzed. The results of this effort were shared with the partner companies and published at high-quality academic venues. Chalmers´s work in CRYSTAL has received substantial recognition in the academic field.

Expected results and effects

Our work in Crystal has contributed to the understanding of Requirements Engineering and validation in the embedded systems industry. The published academic work has advanced the field and received substantial recognition. We expect that these results will help companies in the automotive domain to better assess their current state and options for future improvement and organizational change with respect to Requirements Engineering. Furthermore, the results enable several areas for future research projects, both in collaboration with industry and of theoretical nature.

Planned approach and implementation

The project work in CRYSTAL has been conducted in tight interaction with the industrial partners. Ideas were exchanged on a frequent basis in meetings between academia and industry, involving also engineers from production. Chalmers´s work in CRYSTAL was partly constructive research, proposing approaches for model-based requirements engineering and exploring options with the help of real-life, industrial data. Another part of the research work was conducted in an empirical manner, collecting quantitative and qualitative data through surveys, experiments and interviews.