Abstract: A method for generating a software component for an electronic control unit by a processor on a computer system, the software on the computer system comprising an architecture definition tool and a behavior-modeling tool, the architecture definition tool being adapted to define an architecture of the software component, architecture information comprising a declaration of one or more subcomponents and one or more interfaces, the architecture definition tool additionally being adapted to export and import architecture information, the behavior modeling tool being adapted to generate source code for the software component based on a function model comprising a plurality of interconnected blocks, the behavior-modeling tool additionally being adapted to import and export architecture information, wherein the behavior-modeling tool creates or updates a model framework for the function model based on the architecture information.