IEEE/EIA 12207
Software Life Cycle Processes
Prepared by:
James W. Moore, moorej@ieee.org
The MITRE Corporation
January 1998

Seminar themes (1 of 3)
- Nature of 12207
- A framework of related names and concepts ... not necessarily all of the best practices for software 
- Processes ... not procedures
- Life cycle processes ... not a life cycle model

Seminar themes (2 of 3)
- The best use of IEEE/EIA 12207 is enterprise level adoption.
- It is intended for voluntary adoption rather than contractual imposition.
- It emphasizes specific one-party claims of compliance rather than two-party tailoring.
- It has relationships to contextual standards affecting enterprise goals.
- It has relationships to process and data standards that may be used to implement its processes.

Seminar themes (3 of 3)
- IEEE/EIA 12207 is a strategic, integrating standard for the IEEE software engineering collection.
- It provides a unifying approach to life cycle process standardization.
- It provides a unifying approach to life cycle data standardization.
- IEEE is now improving the fit.
- IEEE plans to build upon the standard with future strategic efforts.

Part 1 -  Software engineering
- Software Engineering
- Definition
- Model
- Relationship to other Disciplines
- Software Engineering Standards
- Software Engineering Standards Developers
Software engineering: Definition
(1) The application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation and maintenance of software, that is, the application of engineering to software
(2) The study of approaches as in (1)
-- IEEE Std 610.12

Software engineering: A model

Software engineering: Relationship to other disciplines

Part 2 – Software engineering standards
- Software Engineering
- Software Engineering Standards
- Scope
- Importance
- Roles and uses
- History
- Software Engineering Standards Developers
Software engineering standards 
- Approximately 315 software engineering standards, guides, handbooks, and technical reports are maintained by approximately 46 professional, sector, national, and international standards organizations. -- [Magee97]
- In 1981, IEEE had one software engineering standard. By year end 1997, the collection had grown to 44. -- [SESC97a]
- The 1994 edition of IEEE Standards Collection: Software Engineering is 1300 pages long. The 1998 edition will be in four volumes totaling 2400 pages
- Most software engineering standards are practice standards rather than the more familiar product standards

Software engineering standards: Scope
Process
- Acquisition
- Requirements definition
- Design
- Code and Test
- Integration
- Maintenance and Operations
- CM
- Documentation
- Project management
- Quality assurance
- V & V

Technique/Tool
- CASE tools
- Languages and Notations
- Metrics
- Privacy
- Process improvement
- Reliability
- Safety
- Security
- Software reuse
- Vocabulary

Software engineering standards: Importance
- They consolidate existing technology into a firm basis for introducing newer technology
- They increase professional discipline
- They protect the business
- They protect the buyer
- They improve the product

Software engineering standards: Roles
- Specify techniques to develop software faster, cheaper, better - IEEE 982.1 (Measures for Reliable SW)
- Provide consensus validity for “best practices” that cannot be scientifically validated - IEEE 1008 (Unit Testing)
- Provide a systematic treatment of “ilities” - IEEE 730 (SW Quality Assurance)
- Provide uniformity where agreement is more important than small improvements - IEEE P1320.1 (IDEF0)
- Provide a framework for communication between buyer and seller - IEEE/EIA 12207 (SW Life Cycle Processes)
- Give precise names to concepts that are fuzzy, complex, detailed and multidimensional - IEEE 1028 (SW Reviews)

Software engineering standards: Uses
- Terminology
- Best practice adoption
- Organizational badge
- Contractual agreement

Software engineering standards: Organizational goals
- Improve and evaluate software competence
- Framework for two-party agreements
- Evaluation of software products
- Assurance of high integrity levels for software products

Software engineering standards: History
- 1968: Term software engineering coined at NATO conference
- 1973: US National Bureau of Standards writes Guidelines for Documentation of Computer Programs and Automated Systems
- 1974: US Navy initiates Mil-Std-1679, Weapons System Development, including guidelines for embedded computing resources.
- 1976: IEEE creates predecessor of SESC
- 1979: IEEE Std 730, Software Quality Assurance Plans
- 1987: ISO and IEC form JTC1 on Information Technology [Industry]
- 1998: JTC1/SC7 gains “horizontal” status

Part 3 – Software engineering standards developers
- Software Engineering
- Software Engineering Standards
- Software Engineering Standards Developers
- International : ISO/JTC1/SC7 and others
- US: IEEE and others

SWE standards developers: International

SWE standards developers: ISO/IEC JTC1/SC7 program
- WG2: System software documentation
- WG4: Tools and environment
- WG6: Evaluation and metrics
- WG7: Life cycle management
- WG8: Integral life cycle processes
- WG9: Classification and mapping
- WG10: Process assessment
- WG11: Software engineering data definition and representation
- WG12: Functional size measurement
- WG13: Software measurement process

SWE standards developers: Current standards of SC7
- Six “legacy” standards
- ISO/IEC 9126:1991, Product quality characteristics
- ISO 9127:1988, User documentation and cover information for consumer software packages
- ISO/IEC TR 9294:1990, Management of software documentation
- ISO/IEC 11411:1995, Representation of state transition diagrams
- ISO/IEC 12119:1994, Software packages: Quality requirements and testing
- ISO/IEC 12207:1995, Software life cycle processes
- ISO/IEC 14102:1995, Evaluation and selection of CASE tools
- ISO/IEC 14143-1:1997, Functional size measurement
- ISO/IEC 14568:1997, Diagram exchange language for tree charts

SWE standards developers:

US

SWE standards developers: IEEE