Your QA is independent of the project.
Nobody inside is independent of the company.
The outside answer key, rented monthly: a monthly evidence review, a rehearsal before every customer gate, AI-governance guardrails, and a memo written to be forwarded to the board. Four hours a week alongside a VP. Exits monthly. Sold as a follow-on to the sprint or the audit, never cold.
Meridian Drivetrain Systems, a fictional Tier-1 powertrain supplier, month 1 of the advisory. Every figure is simulated; the method is the product.
CONTEXT, DATED: SOFTWARE SHARE OF NHTSA RECALLS ~15% BY 2023 (WARDSAUTO/ENVORSO) · 54% OF SOFTWARE RECALLS TRACE TO INTERFACE-LEVEL FMEA GAPS (PEER-REVIEWED, 2022) · ENGINEERING INTERPRETATION OF PUBLIC DATA
Verdict
One maturity gate of four closed. FMEA scope for two ECUs is complete and signed: 214 boundaries. One severity-9 failure mode still carries a detection rating with no test evidence; it is the month-3 fault-injection priority. Two decisions need you.
What moved
- Interface register signed by systems engineering and software architecture leads.
- Failure-mode derivation started on the torque path: engineers accepted 20 of 40 AI candidates, rewrote 9, rejected 11. The rejection rate is the proof the review has teeth.
- AI-governance guardrails 1 through 4 adopted in writing.
Cost accounting
- Fee $3,000 · inference $41 on client accounts · 9 engineer-hours spent vs 60 estimated manually: ~51 hours returned.
Decisions needed
- Name the change-impact process owner (Gate 3 requires one).
- Reserve the HIL bench window for month-3 fault injection.
Evidence review · monthly
The sprint's method, continuously: every audit-relevant item graded missing, partial or found, deltas reported, regressions flagged with an owner.
Rehearsal · pre-gate
Before every customer assessment or milestone: the assessor's questions asked first by the coach, on your evidence, with time to fix what fails.
Guardrails · standing
Six written rules on what your copilots may generate unattended vs what requires a human why. Audited quarterly against behavior.
Memo · board-forwardable
One page a month: verdict, deltas, cost accounting, decisions. Your sponsor forwards it, they never rewrite it.