# ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 Software and systems engineering is a standardization subcommittee of the Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), that develops and facilitates standards within the field of engineering of software products and systems. The international secretariat of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 is the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) located in India.

## History

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 was first established in 1987, though the origins of the subcommittee began with ISO/TC 97, established in 1960 as a standardization technical committee in the field of information processing. With the formation of ISO/IEC JTC 1 in 1987, ISO/TC 97 and IEC/TC 83 were combined to form ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7, Software Engineering. In 2000, the subcommittee changed its title from Software Engineering to its current title, Software and Systems Engineering. ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 held its first plenary in Paris, France in 1987.

## Scope and mission

The scope of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 is the “Standardization of processes, supporting tools and supporting technologies for the engineering of software products and systems,” including
* Software and systems engineering processes
* Software system products
* Enterprise architecture
* Software engineering environment
* Software engineering body of knowledge
* Management of IT assets
The mission of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 is to
* Provide quality standards that cover the entire life-cycle of information systems
* Provide quality standards that meet user needs in broad markets
* Manage the set of standards effectively through documented framework
* Promote the use of standards by providing supporting materials
* Provide leadership in standardization through:
** A continuous technology watch process using Study Groups to explore new areas and markets
** The development of a comprehensive set of integrated standards with broad international and professional consensus
** Initiating cooperative work with international professional and standards producing organizations
** A framework that:
*** Facilitates the integration and sub-contracting of standards developed in other standards producing organizations
*** Facilitates cooperative development of joint standards with other international standards producing organizations
*** Minimizes the inconsistencies between ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 standards, including those developed by other standards producing organizations

## Structure

As of August 2020, ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 is made up of 14 active working groups (WGs), three ad hoc working groups (AHGs) and five advisory groups (AGs). Each of these groups carries out specific tasks in standards development within the field of systems and software engineering. As a response to standardization needs within the field of software and systems engineering, working groups within ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 were disbanded if their working area was no longer applicable, or established if new working areas arose. The focus of each working group, special working group, advisory group, and task force is described in the group’s terms of reference.
Active working groups of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 are:
| Working Group | Working Area |
| ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/WG 2 | System Software Documentation |
| ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/WG 4 | Tools and Environment |
| ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/WG 6 | Software Product and System Quality |
| ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/WG 7 | Life Cycle Management |
| ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/WG 10 | Process Assessment |
| ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/WG 19 | Techniques for Specifying IT Systems |
| ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/WG 20 | Software and Systems Bodies of Knowledge and Professionalization |
| ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/WG 21 | Information Technology Asset Management |
| ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/WG 22 | Vocabulary validation |
| ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/WG 24 | Systems and Software Standards for Very Small Entities |
| ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/WG 26 | Software Testing |
| ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/JWG 28 | Common Industry Formats for Usability Reports (Joint between ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 and ISO/TC 159/SC 4) |
| ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/WG 29 | Agile and DevOps |
| ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/WG 42 | Architecture |
| Ad Hoc Group | Working Area |
| ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/AHG 7 | Open source software |
| ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/AHG 9 | AI-based software development |
| ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/AHG 10 | Green software |
| ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/AHG 11 | Low code development |
| Advisory Group | Working Area |
| ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/AG 1 | Chair’s Advisory Group |
| ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/AG 2 | Business planning group |
| ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/AG 3 | Communications and outreach |
| ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/AG 4 | Standards management |
| ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/AG 5 | Architecture and future watch |
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 also had one task force, “Spanish Translation Task Force”.

## Collaborations

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 works in close collaboration with a number of other organizations or subcommittees, both internal and external to ISO or IEC, in order to avoid conflicting or duplicative work. Organizations internal to ISO or IEC that collaborate with or are in liaison to ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 include:
* ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 22, Programming languages, their environments and system software interfaces
* ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27, Security techniques
* ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 32, Data management and interchange
* ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 38, Cloud Computing and Distributed Platforms
* ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 40, Service Management and IT Governance
* ISO/TC 22/SC 3, Electrical and electronic equipment
* ISO/TC 22/SC 32, Electrical and electronic components and general system aspects
* ISO/TC 46/SC 4, Technical interoperability
* ISO/TC 159/SC 4, Ergonomics of human-system interaction
* ISO/TC 176, Quality management and quality assurance
* ISO/TC 176/SC 1, Concepts and terminology
* ISO/TC 176/SC 2, Quality systems
* ISO/TC 176/SC 3, Supporting technologies
* ISO/TC 184/SC 4, Industrial data
* ISO/TC 184/SC 5, Interoperability, integration, and architectures for enterprise systems and automation applications
* ISO/TC 210, Quality management and corresponding general aspects for medical devices
* ISO/TC 215, Health informatics
* ISO/PC 251, Asset management
* ISO/TC 258, Project, programme and portfolio management
* ISO/PC 259, Outsourcing
* ISO/CASCO, Committee on conformity assessment
* IEC/TC 56, Dependability
* IEC/TC 93, Design automation
Some organizations external to ISO or IEC that collaborate with or are in liaison to ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 include:
* Audio Engineering Society (AES)
* Ecma International
* Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
* International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE)
* Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA/ITGI)
* International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
* Project Management Institute (PMI)
* IT Service Management Forum (itSMF)
* World Meteorological Organization (WMO)
* European Software Institute (ESI software)
* International Association of Information Technology Asset Managers, Inc. (IAITAM)
* The SPICE User Group
* Business Software Alliance (BSA)
* European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)

## Member countries

Countries pay a fee to ISO to be members of subcommittees.
The 40 "P" (participating) members of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 are: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kazakhstan, Republic of Korea, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America, and Uruguay.
The 20 "O" (observing) members of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 are: Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Cyprus, Estonia, Ghana, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Indonesia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Kenya, Morocco, Norway, Philippines, Serbia, the Republic of Macedonia, and Turkey.

## Published standards

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 currently has 153 published standards within the field of software and systems engineering, including:
| ISO/IEC Standard | Title | Status | Description | WG |
| ISO/IEC TR 19759 | Software Engineering – Guide to the Software Engineering Body of Knowledge (SWEBOK) | Published (2005) | Identifies and describes the subset of body of knowledge of software engineering that is generally accepted | 20 |
| ISO/IEC 15288 | Systems and software engineering – System life cycle processes | Published (2008) | Establishes a common framework for describing the life cycle of systems created by humans and defines a set of processes and associated terminology | 7 |
| ISO/IEC 12207 | Systems and software engineering – Software life cycle processes | Published (2008) | Establishes a common framework for software life cycle processes with well-defined terminology | 7 |
| ISO/IEC 20000-1 | Information technology – Service management – Part 1: Service management system requirements | Published (2011) | Specifies requirements for the service provider to plan, establish, implement, operate, monitor, review, maintain, and improve a service management system (SMS) | 25 |
| ISO/IEC 15504-1 | Information technology – Process assessment – Part 1: Concepts and vocabulary | Published (2004) | Provides overall information on the concepts of process assessment and its use in the two contexts of process improvement and process capability determination | 10 |
| ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010 | Systems and software engineering – Architecture description | Published (2011) | Addresses the creation, analysis, and sustainment of architectures of systems through the use of architecture descriptions | 42 |
| ISO/IEC TR 29110-1 | Software engineering – Lifecycle profiles for Very Small Entities (VSEs) – Part 1: Overview | Published (2011) | Introduces the characteristics and requirements of a VSE and clarifies the rationale for VSE-specific profiles, documents, standards, and guides | 24 |
| ISO/IEC TR 9126-2 | Software engineering – Product quality – Part 2: External metrics | Published (2003) | Provides external metrics for measuring attributes of six external quality characteristics defined in ISO/IEC 9126-1 | |
| ISO/IEC 10746-1 | Information technology – Open Distributed Processing – Reference model: Overview | Published (1998) | Provides: An introduction and motivation for ODP An overview of the Reference Model of Open Distributed Processing (RM-ODP) and an explanation of its key concepts Gives guidance on the application of RM-ODP | 19 |
| ISO/IEC 19770-1 | Information technology – Software asset management – Part 1: Processes and tiered assessment of conformance | Published (2012) | Establishes a baseline for an integrated set of processes for Software Asset Management (SAM), divided into tiers to allow for incremental implementation, assessment, and recognition | 21 |
| ISO/IEC 24744 | Software engineering—Metamodel for development methodologies | Published (2014) | Specifies a metamodel for development methodologies and related information. | 19 |
| ISO/IEC/IEEE 26511 | Systems and software engineering — Requirements for managers of user documentation | Published (2011) | Specifies procedures for managing user documentation throughout the software life cycle. | 2 |
| ISO/IEC/IEEE 26512 | Systems and software engineering—Requirements for acquirers and suppliers of user documentation | Published (2011) | Defines the documentation process from the acquirer's standpoint and the supplier's standpoint. | 2 |
| ISO/IEC/IEEE 26513 | Systems and software engineering — Requirements for testers and reviewers of user documentation | Published (2009) | Defines the process in which user documentation products are tested. | 2 |
| ISO/IEC/IEEE 26514 | Systems and software engineering — Requirements for designers and developers of user documentation | Published (2008) | Specifies the structure, content, and format for user documentation, and provides informative guidance for user documentation style. | 2 |
| ISO/IEC/IEEE 26515 | Systems and software engineering — Developing user documentation in an agile environment | Published (2011) | Specifies the way in which user documentation can be developed in agile development projects. | 2 |