Historical
ISO/IEC TR 16326:1999
Software engineering -- Guide for the application of ISO/IEC 12207 to project management
This Technical Report supplements International Standard ISO/IEC 12207, Information technology — Software life cycle processes, in the area of Management Process (hereafter referred to as “software project management” or SPM. Thus, in this Technical Report, SPM is not a person, but a process). This Technical Report was developed by (see Figure 1):
- Applying the Management Process in ISO/IEC 12207 to SPM.
- Using A Guide to the Project Management Body of KnowledgeTM(PMBOKTM) [11] to define and describe management knowledge areas applicable to SPM.
- Using ISO 10006, Quality management – Guidelines to quality in project management [5].
This Technical Report provides guidance to people responsible for managing the performance of ISO/IEC 12207 software life cycle Primary Processes: Acquisition, Supply, Development, Operation and Maintenance. The guidance addresses:
- General guidance for SPM regarding ISO/IEC 12207, subclause 7.1, management activities as they are supported in each Primary Process.
- SPM applicability for each Primary Process.
- Key areas applicable across the spectrum of SPM.
- Expanded guidance for software Project Managers (PMs) regarding the management tasks from:
- [11] — Identifies and describes generally that subset of the PMBOKTMwhich is generally accepted. Generally accepted means that the knowledge and practices described are applicable to most projects most of the time, and there is widespread consensus about their value and usefulness.
- [5] — Gives guidance on quality system elements, concepts and practices for which the implementation is important to and has an impact on the practice of project management.
This Technical Report addresses aspects of project management that are either “software specific” or are known to cause problems in software projects in any of the ISO/IEC 12207 Primary Processes. For example, it is well known that software projects are often late and/or over budget, or are unable to meet an acquirer's requirements or expectations. While this is not peculiar to software, there are a number of software specific attributes causing this to happen.
Figure 1 illustrates the relationship of ISO/IEC 12207, [11] and [5] in the development of this Technical Report.
Audience
This Technical Report is written for those who use or plan to use ISO/IEC 12207 on software projects regardless of project scope, product, methodology, size or complexity. This Technical Report is written primarily to aid software PMs in ensuring management processes conform to ISO/IEC 12207, specifically:
- Managers responsible for establishing and continuously improving ISO/IEC 12207 software life cycle processes.
- Managers responsible for executing any ISO/IEC 12207 software life cycle process at a project level.
- Organizations or individuals subcontracting an SPM effort.
Consideration is given to people who have:
- Worked on software projects, but not as a software PM.
- Been non-software PMs, but are transitioning to be software PMs.
This Technical Report presents the primary ISO/IEC 12207 life cycle processes from the perspective of a software PM and provides advice (based on experience, lessons learned, etc.) about best practices and recommendations to be applied to management tasks by the practitioners. Lastly, this Technical Report enables engineering, technical and other support staffs to see how their efforts integrate within a total, software life cycle.
Prerequisites
The prerequisites to use this Technical Report are:
- Availability of and familiarity with ISO/IEC 12207.
- Familiarity with the relevant organizational policies and procedures.
- Knowledge of stakeholder and contract requirements (needs and expectations).
International Organization for Standardization [iso]