ISO/IEC 12207:2008(E)

This International Standard establishes a common framework for software life cycle processes, with well-defined terminology, that can be referenced by the software industry. It applies to the acquisition of systems and software products and services, to the supply, development, operation, maintenance, and disposal of software products and the software portion of a system, whether performed internally or externally to an organization. Those aspects of system definition needed to provide the context for software products and services are included. Software includes the software portion of firmware. This revision integrates ISO/IEC 12207:1995 with its two amendments and was coordinated with the parallel revision of ISO/IEC 15288:2002 (System life cycle processes) to align structure, terms, and corresponding organizational and project processes. This standard may be used stand alone or jointly with ISO/IEC 15288, and supplies a process reference model that supports process capability assessment in accordance with ISO/IEC 15504-2 (Process assessment). An annex provides support for IEEE users and describes relationships of this International Standard to IEEE standards.

Introduction

ISO/IEC 12207 was published on 1 August 1995 and was the first International Standard to provide a comprehensive set of life cycle processes, activities and tasks for software that is part of a larger system, and for stand alone software products and services. That International Standard was followed in November 2002 by ISO/IEC 15288 which addressed system life cycle processes. The ubiquity of the software meant that the software and its design processes should not be considered separately from those systems, but be considered as an integral part of the system and system design processes. The ISO/IEC 12207 Amendments in 2002 and 2004 added process purpose and outcomes to the International Standard and established a Process Reference Model in accordance with the requirements of ISO/IEC 15504-2.

This International Standard, a revision of the amended ISO/IEC 12207, is an initial step in the SC7 harmonization strategy to achieve a fully integrated suite of system and software life cycle processes and guidance for their application. This revision integrates ISO/IEC 12207:1995 with its two Amendments and applies SC7 guidelines for process definition to support consistency and improved usability. Project execution was carefully coordinated with the parallel revision of ISO/IEC 15288:2002 to align structure, terms, and corresponding organizational and project processes.

This International Standard can be used in one or more of the following modes:

• By an organization — to help establish an environment of desired processes. These processes can be supported by an infrastructure of methods, procedures, techniques, tools and trained personnel. The organization may then employ this environment to perform and manage its projects and progress systems through their life cycle stages. In this mode this International Standard is used to assess conformance of a declared, established set of life cycle processes to its provisions.
• By a project — to help select, structure and employ the elements of an established set of life cycle processes to provide products and services. In this mode this International Standard is used in the assessment of conformance of the project to the declared and established environment.
• By an acquirer and a supplier — to help develop an agreement concerning processes and activities. Via the agreement, the processes and activities in this International Standard are selected, negotiated, agreed to and performed. In this mode this International Standard is used for guidance in developing the agreement. ⎯ By organizations and assessors — to perform assessments that may be used to support organizational process improvement.

This International Standard contains requirements in four Clauses: Clause 6, which defines the requirements for the system life cycle processes, Clause 7, which defines the requirements for specific software life cycle processes, clauses of Annex A, which provides requirements for tailoring of this International Standard and clauses of Annex B, which provides a Process Reference Model (PRM) which may be used for assessment purposes.

Five informative annexes support the harmonization strategy initiated by this revision.

• Annex C expands on history and rationale for the changes, and provides high-level traceability among the International Standards which were used as the inputs to this revision.
• Annex D describes the alignment of the processes of ISO/IEC 15288 and ISO/IEC 12207 — a key focus of this revision.
• Annex E provides an example of a process view for Usability, intended to illustrate how a project might assemble processes, activities and tasks of ISO/IEC 12207 to provide focused attention to the achievement of product characteristics that have been selected as being of special interest.
• Annex F contains some example process descriptions that are considered useful to some readers of thisInternational Standard.
• Annex G provides support for IEEE users and describes relationships of this International Standard to IEEE standards.

Readers of this International Standard are advised to consult Clause 5 to gain understanding of the key concepts used.

NOTE A future Technical Report (ISO/IEC TR 24748) will describe the relations between this International Standard and ISO/IEC 15288:2008.