Automotive SPICE Guideline 3rd Edition: 2026

The intent of this publication is to revise the Blue-Gold Book Automotive SPICE^® Guidelines version 2 to improve the quality and reproducibility of assessment results.

The objective is to give necessary clarifications and recommendations for the application of Automotive SPICE^® for the purpose of performing assessments and monitoring of resulting process improvements in the development of software-based systems.

To fulfill this mandate, the following activities were performed:

• Improving the Automotive SPICE^® Process Assessment and reference Model regarding structure, inconsistencies, clarifications and additional concepts. This was done with the publication of the 4.1 version of Automotive SPICE^® PrM/PAM [AS41].
• Improvement and update of the guidelines on the interpretation of Automotive SPICE^® and on Assessment Performance. This is provided by the current publication.
• Setting requirements for the qualification of assessors and updating the existing procedures, training materials and examinations. This will be done in collaboration with the international assessor certification scheme (INTACS^® ) to accompany the release and roll-out of this publication [intacs].

The current publication will replace the existing Blue-Gold Print Automotive SPICE^® Guidelines version 2 and can be applied with its official publication in the VDA QMC online shop.

The present publication addresses the mandate by providing two parts:

Part 1: Interpretation and rating guidelines

This part provides rules for the rating performed in an assessment.

Part 2: Guidelines for performing the assessment

By defining the requirements for the assessment process, it is intended to standardize the procedure, so that the companies involved in an assessment can follow a defined assessment approach. This present volume specifies the requirements related to the assessment process, as well as the qualification of assessors carrying out assessments based on Automotive SPICE^®. All rules for rating in assessments reflect best practices from assessors having extensive experience in assessments based on Automotive SPICE^® in various applications.

Besides the knowledge of the participating members and third-party members involved, the present publication leverages other sources giving valuable input, which has been proven in many years of assessment practice and assessor trainings.

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