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The automotive industry is facing a tremendous growth in the engineering of software-intensive systems, giving rise to various challenges. To prevent problems related to the fit of new software technologies in vehicles and the manufacturing processes, a well functioning interaction between the functions for product development and manufacturing is crucial. This is complicated by the fact that the changeable nature of software development causes unprecedented needs for collaboration and coordination between these two functions. This paper reports on a process assessment that focuses on the interface between the functions for product development and manufacturing in the development and design of software-intensive automotive systems. The main purpose of the study was to identify the key issues for improvement in the area assessed. The assessment was performed at two Swedish automotive companies where data were collected from documents and in interviews with practitioners. Nine key improvement issues were established ranging from challenges in requirements engineering to the need for knowledge transfer between manufacturing and product development. In addition, to increase the understandability of the results and map possible avenues for solution and future research, the paper provides an extensive analysis of each improvement issue in relation to the state-of-the-art.

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The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study is to research the current causes to cost estimation errors and revisit the research question of a well published quantitative study to explore whether responses would be consistent using qualitative methodology. Both overlaps and deviations are to be expected as a result of this comparison. The focus of this paper is on differences where new issues are likely to be found.The 8 resulting cross case cost estimation inhibitors validate 7 out of 16 issues found in the quantitative study. They are also related to the theory within and outside the area of software engineering resulting in five underlying software cost estimation inhibitors and providing a deeper understanding for the snapshot of the current causes of cost estimation errors reported by the practitioners.Lastly, the question of the practitioners' ability to report upon software cost estimation inhibitors is discussed. We argue that there might be causes of cost estimation errors that practitioners might be unwilling to reveal or might even be completely unaware of. Thus, they might unconsciously be providing researchers with invalid data.

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As cost estimation is an important yet problematic part of project planning there is a need of process improvement to decrease the estimation errors. This paper has two purposes. Based on a qualitative case study conducted at a Swedish automotive company it describes the process of cost estimation in a real-life setting focusing on inhibitors to accurate cost estimates. Second, the results of this study are compared with four other studies with a similar purpose of concluding that a company-specific investigation of cost estimation inhibitors might give more actionable input to the activity of cost estimation process improvement than a more general investigation.