Chapter 4: Meeting Assurance

The work required to achieve assurance has officially become the bottleneck. In our data, testing and validation rose to the top testing concern (42%), while verifying & validating software is the #1 time sink in workflows (44%). Also noteworthy, documenting work climbed to 40%. This data all points to heavier verification, reporting, and evidence demands.  

The root causes of this slowdown are well-known in automotive circles. Safety standards mandate traceability and rigorous testing: 

• ISO 26262 demands requirements-based verification, structural coverage, and bidirectional traceability from requirements to tests and results.  
• Complex systems (ADAS/AV features, software-defined vehicle architectures) rely heavily on SIL/HIL validation to verify real‑world behavior and timing.   
• SOTIF (ISO 21448) goes beyond traditional fault‑based safety to address hazards from functional insufficiency.   
• Continuous OTA pushes (UNECE R156 / SUMS) require release‑by‑release proof of what changed and how it was validated. 

Automating workflows using a modernized toolset is only one part of improving test efficiency. Teams also need to prioritize what they test, when they test it, and how evidence is captured.