Systems and software engineering. Lifecycle profiles for very small entities (VSEs). Service delivery. Profile specification

Abstract

Very Small Entities (VSEs) around the world are creating valuable products and services. For the purpose of ISO/IEC 29110, a Very Small Entity (VSE) is an enterprise, an organization, a department or a project having up to 25 people. Since many VSEs develop and/or maintain system and software components used in systems, either as independent products or incorporated in larger systems, a recognition of VSEs as suppliers of high quality products is required.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) SME and Entrepreneurship Outlook report (2005), ”Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) constitute the dominant form of business organization in all countries world-wide, accounting for over 95 % and up to 99 % of the business population depending on country”. The challenge facing governments and economies is to provide a business environment that supports the competitiveness of this large heterogeneous business population and that promotes a vibrant entrepreneurial culture.

From studies and surveys conducted, it is clear that the majority of International Standards do not address the needs of VSEs. Implementation of and conformance with these standards is difficult, if not impossible. Consequently, VSEs have no, or very limited, ways to be recognized as entities that produce quality systems/system elements including software in their domain. Therefore, VSEs are excluded from some economic activities.

It has been found that VSEs find it difficult to relate International Standards to their business needs and to justify the effort required to apply standards to their business practices. Most VSEs can neither afford the resources, in terms of number of employees, expertise, budget and time, nor do they see a net benefit in establishing over-complex systems or software life cycle processes. To address some of these difficulties, a set of guides has been developed based on a set of VSE characteristics. The guides are based on subsets of appropriate standards processes, activities, tasks and outcomes, referred to as Profiles. The purpose of a profile is to define a subset of International Standards relevant to the VSEs’ context; for example, processes, activities, tasks and outcomes of ISO/IEC/IEEE 12207 for software; and processes, activities, tasks and outcomes of ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 for systems; and information products (documentation) of ISO/IEC/IEEE 15289 for software and systems.

The ISO/IEC 29110 series of standards and technical reports can be applied at any phase of system or software development within a life cycle. This series of standards and technical reports is intended to be used by VSEs that do not have experience or expertise in adapting/tailoring ISO/IEC/IEEE 12207 or ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 standards to the needs of a specific project. VSEs that have expertise in adapting/tailoring ISO/IEC/IEEE 12207 or ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 are encouraged to use those standards instead of ISO/IEC 29110.

ISO/IEC 29110 is intended to be used with any lifecycle such as: waterfall, iterative, incremental, evolutionary or agile.

Systems, in the context of ISO/IEC 29110, are typically composed of hardware and software components.

© ISO/IEC 2022 All rights reserved

External Links