ISO 12207 Software life cycle processes — fit for purpose?

Abstract

The recently published ISO 12207 Software Life Cycle Processes is examined for adequacy using the model of IT standards developed by Cargill. An overview description is used to identify two principal features of ISO 12207 that militate against its applicability as a reference standard for the software industry — the way in which processes can be tailored to fit any desired process model, and its multiplicity of quality assurance processes. This overview description uncovers the breadth of guidelines proposed to accompany ISO 12207 in future years, and finds that the new standard is well described by Cargill's criteria as an industry standard model with potential extensions-via the guidelines-into functional profiles that will give descriptions about how to achieve the potential of the industry model. Having established the status of ISO 12207 as a software industry standard within the general scope of ISO 9001, its position with respect to ISO 9000-3 is appraised. Observing Cargill's result that there may be more than one industry model for any specific generic standard, an attempt is made to map the way forward for the co-existence of ISO 12207 and ISO 9000-3. The SPICE project becomes vital, not only as a standard in its own right but also as a link between tailorability in ISO 12207 and the setting of minimum competencies for compliance with ISO 9001 using the process descriptions of ISO 12207. The declared revision aim of ISO 9001 for the end of the century, to reduce proliferation of standards, is found to be compatible with the prospect of a variety of ISO 12207 pathways to compliance for the software sector and its special problem of defining a lifecycle.