Systems and software engineering - Measurement process

This document establishes a common process and framework for measurement of systems and software. It defines a process and associated terminology from an engineering viewpoint. The process can be applied to the project and products across the life cycle. The measurement process can be applied throughout the life cycle to aid the planning, managing, assessing, and decision-making in all stages of a system or software life cycle.

This document also provides activities that support the definition, control and improvement of the measurement process used within an organization or a project.

This document does not assume or prescribe an organizational model for measurement. The user of this document decides, for example, whether a separate measurement function is necessary within the organization and whether the measurement function should be integrated within individual projects or across projects, based on the current organizational structure, culture and prevailing constraints.

This document does not prescribe a specific set of measures, method, model or technique. The users of this document are responsible for selecting a set of measures for the project and defining the application of those measures across the process, products, and other elements of the life cycle. The parties are also responsible for selecting and applying appropriate methods, models, tools and techniques suitable for the project.

This document is not intended to prescribe the name, format, explicit content, or recording media of the information items to be produced. This document does not imply that documents be packaged or combined in some fashion. These decisions are left to the user of this document. ISO/IEC/IEEE 15289 addresses the content for life cycle process information items (documentation).

The measurement process is supposed to be appropriately integrated with the organizational quality system. Not all aspects of internal audits and non-compliance reporting are covered explicitly in this document as they are assumed to be in the domain of the quality system.

This document is not intended to conflict with any organizational policies, standards or procedures that are already in place. However, any conflict should be resolved and any overriding conditions and situations need to be cited in writing as exceptions to the application of this document.