App Certification

All Chrysler commissioned apps developed for a Chrysler Head Unit running on the Sprint Service Delivery Platform, SDP are required to be certified.

A Chrysler certified app:

Complies with the Chrysler defined moral/ethical, legal, usability, and safety standards as required for Chrysler branding or endorsement.
Fulfills its intended use (meets customer expectations), “built the right thing”.
Adheres to software development standards and requirements, was “built right”.
Is suitable for the use in the Chrysler Uconnect system, “Plays nice” with all Uconnect and SDP components.

Strategy

App certification is accomplished through planning and execution of Compliance, Verification, and Validation tests at the pre-determined points in the app development process shown below and in the App Development Phases diagram.

Design Phase
Pre-Development Compliance Testing
Component and Inter-Operability Test Plan
Develop Phase
Developer Component Testing
Inter-Operability Testing
Validation Testing
Test Phase
Driver Distraction Testing
Road / Drive Testing
Release Phase
NRT Component Testing
FIT integration Testing
Certification
Approval

Design Phase

Since every app on the vehicle is a reflection on the Chrysler brand, each app submission to Chrysler is subject to an initial compliance assessment to ensure adherence to standards set forth for Chrysler endorsed products. Each app submission is documented in a Level 1B Specification and is tested, Pre-Development Compliance Testing to ensure that the application complies with the Chrysler defined moral/ethical, legal, usability, and safety standards required for Chrysler branding or endorsement.

Pre-Development compliance criteria category selection, validation / inter-operability test plan and test cases are started at this time. As the specifications and designs are completed more details are added to the test plans and test cases.

Read more - Design in Dev Process.

Develop Phase

During the development phase the actual application (the code) is created and tested. It is considered a best practice to develop the code and test cases iteratively and test as components are completed. There are three levels of testing that occur during the Development Phase. During these phases the test plans and test cases are modified to include newly discovered criteria.

During Developer Component Testing each component will be tested on an emulator with simulated inputs. This phase of testing can also be called unit testing. Consideration should be given to automated tests for these tests as they provide more robust and repeatable testing.

During Inter-Operability Testing or IOT which occurs when there are multiple components available, the components are tested against each other to determine how well they integrate into the run time environment. Inter-Operability testing is run on a Bench Top Head Unit with simulated inputs. To pass IOT all of the high level test cases need to pass.

Developer component testing and inter-operability testing can be performed iteratively until the app is ready for validation testing.

During Validation Testing an assessment is made to validate that the app meets the intent of the Customer Experience submitted in a Level 1B spec or the original 3rd party application submission as well as the level 2 specification and requirements. Validation tests are first run on a Bench Top Head Unit and then tested in one or more of the targeted vehicles.

Read more - Develop in Dev Process.

Test Phase

The Test Phase verifies that the application is ready for real world conditions. It begins when the app has been completed and integrated into the execution environment (Head Unit).

To evaluate that the app is ready for real world conditions the app is first tested to ensure that it has been designed in such a way that the driver can complete the desired task with sequential glances that are brief enough not to adversely affect driving, Driver Distraction Testing.

The app is then road tested to evaluate not only the application performance under various real world conditions, but also to evaluate the user experience under normal vehicle operation conditions, Road / Drive Testing.

Read more - Test in Dev Process.

Release Phase

During the Release Phase an app is certified that it is ready for production.

Most applications will engage multiple components of the CVP and it is necessary to test the interaction of these components in an environment that closely represents a production environment, the NRT lab. In the NRT Lab SDP functionality, usability, reliability, performance and supportability (FURPS) testing is performed by Sprint, NRT Component Testing.

The last phase of testing, FIT Integration Testing will be in the FIT environment where no emulators will be used. In FIT, regression of SDP end-to-end data flows and applications functionality will be verified along with overall operational readiness. The goal of this testing is to make sure that all applications are working as expected.

At this point in the development process all testing has been completed and the app can be certified. Certification is an official review of all Compliance, Verification, and Validation tests, execution of post development compliance reviews, and verification that all prerequisites have been completed and the application is ready for submission to the Chrysler app store.

After an app is certified and moved to the app store there is an optional soaking period. During this period the app is only available to certain VINs for a set period of time. After the soaking period the Chrysler Qualification engineer with either approve the app for all VINs or reject the app if there are issues and create a service request to the vendor responsible for an identified problem area.

Read more - Release in Dev Process.