About the project

AUDI AG has many departments involved in many technical domains, each using a complex set of tools in order to address their specific problems. The department in charge with the management and design of the electrical system of a vehicle relies on a network of software tools, which has to provide the means for creating, architecting, developing, maintaining and managing projects that describe the electrical network in a vehicle.

BUSNET is a desktop software tool developed and maintained in-house by Audi, which integrates with other tools with the use of industry standards such as Automotive Open System Architecture (AUTOSAR). BUSNET handles AUTOSAR projects that describe the entire layout of electric and electronic devices and components in a vehicle, as well as the way they interconnect on different communication busses.

This tool can import, edit, and export AUTOSAR projects, provides maintenance of the versioning of the projects and of the required metadata for the management workflow of the projects. This means that there is full accountability and tracking of the evolution of the project until it becomes a release
version for the intended version of a vehicle model, and even after that as the project becomes the starting point of the project for the next version of the vehicle model, or even for a new vehicle model.

Although BUSNET is maintained in-house by Audi, their teams have a general lack of available personnel and they are addressing this problem with the help of external resources. Audi approached us in order to provide the extra personnel required to complete and integrate into the BUSNET team.

Challenges

Legacy system integration

Ensuring productivity using old technologies in a large source code base.
Adding new features in an existing complex class hierarchy.

Managing data volume:

Dealing with the challenges of processing, storing, and querying large volumes of data in real time while maintaining a positive user experience.
Addressing potential bottlenecks and latency issues when transferring and processing large amounts of input/ output data.

Dependency management:

Adding new features in an existing complex and tightly connected class hierarchy.
Handling dependencies between hierarchy classes, where changes in one class may impact others, potentially leading to cascading failures.
Managing versioning and ensuring that changes to one project impact the functioning of dependent projects in the intended manner.

Team integration

Expanding a team that has all the processes (meetings, documentation) exclusively in German with team members that do not speak German involves efforts of adaptation on both sides.

Steep learning curve

Become productive in a timely manner while working on an unfamiliar large sourcecode base.

Solution

Audi BUSNET is a desktop solution that integrates with other systems used within the organization.

Legacy system integration

Becoming familiar with Java Swing allowed the development of new GUI features in a
timely manner.

Managing data volume:

Development of high-performance processing code for the new required features to ensure that the import / export of large projects is still performed in a timely manner.
Debug the application to find and diagnose bottlenecks.

Dependency management:

Experience is key in handling an existing complex and tightly connected class hierarchy, as well as handling dependencies.
Project versioning is an important feature of BUSNET, with the use of a private dedicated Git server for storing and querying the project versions.

Team integration

The German speaking members of the team adapted to holding the meetings in English, while English speaking members adapted to reading documentation in German using translation tools.

Steep learning curve

Experience and perseverance are key in getting up to speed with a large and unfamiliar source code base.

Technologies used

Git API

Jawa Swing

AUTOSAR API

Oracle 11g

Results

Despite the challenges, the team integrated successfully and managed to implement new features, maintain the project and prepare new release versions ensuring smooth operation of the team of engineers using the platform.

Perspective

This system highlights our commitment to client satisfaction and our ability to adapt to complex challenges. It represents a model of handling projects with less common or even outdated technologies, but of high importance in the customer’s overall framework.

As a dedicated software development team with expertise in nearshore software development, software development outsourcing, IT staff augmentation and many more, we specialize in providing innovative solutions across industries, from custom manufacturing software development to business process optimization, ensuring that our clients remain competitive and efficient in their operations. Check out our software development projects here.