Trustful Model-Based Information Exchange in Collaborative Engineering.

Automotive and aviation systems are undergoing a radical shift in their software and hardware architectures, affecting the processes and communities used to design them. On a technical level, we see a trend towards integration of heterogeneous function domains on centralized computing platforms. On a process and collaboration level, this trend implies two things: First, heterogeneous communities of OEMs and suppliers on different tiers need to collaborate intensely to create innovative software-intensive products. Second, these communities need to be able to exchange development artifacts efficiently by means of open, model-based exchange formats. Even competing companies will have to collaborate in such heterogeneous communities. We illustrate the challenges of trustful, model-based information exchange in heterogeneous development communities that arise due to intellectual property protection concerns. We identify data security threats for collaborative, model-based engineering processes and suggest guidelines that support trustful information exchange between partners of a heterogeneous community.