CMMI in Semiconductor Development

The share of semiconductors in the total value of an automobile has been growing in recent years. It is 10 % for the average medium-sized automobile today, and is expected to rise to 20 % in 2015. Associated with this trend are an intensified competitive environment and grow-ing demands for new strategies and develop-ment processes. Mastery of complexity, further improvements in development quality and re-ductions in development costs are called for. This paper by Robert Bosch GmbH and Vector Consulting GmbH shows how the CMMI model is applied to semiconductor development with a special focus on management involvement. 1 History and Initial Situation Semiconductors represent the foundation of all electronic applications in the automo-bile. Analogous to the constant growth of the electronic share, semiconductors have exhibited a rising share of value creation in motor vehicles for years now. While in 1985 its share of production costs for an average medium-sized automobile was only 1 %, to-day it has already grown to 10 %, and 20 % i