Selecting the Life Cycle Model

Lead Authors: David Endler Contributing Authors: Mike Yokell, Garry Roedler

Life cycle models serve as essential frameworks that guide the development and management of systems and services throughout their existence. Adapted to organizational needs, these models help align projects with strategic goals while accommodating industry regulations and internal diversity. Far from being static, effective life cycle models evolve through continuous improvement and performance measurement. They enable consistent project execution, facilitate knowledge sharing, and support efficient resource use. Creating the right model requires balancing regulatory demands with best practices and corporate culture, ensuring relevance and stakeholder commitment. Sustained success depends on regularly reviewing and adapting these models to changing conditions.

Align to 24748-1, 6.2.6

Concepts

A life cycle model is a framework of processes and activities concerned with the life cycle which can be organized into stages, acting as a common reference for communication and understanding [SOURCE: ISO/IEC/IEEE 24748-1:2024]. Decision-making reviews or gates based on specific entry or exit criteria are typically part of a life cycle model. Organizations create and maintain life cycle models to develop systems or services that meet their strategic plans, policies, goals and objectives.

Life cycle models should always be organization-specific, even if there are regulatory requirements regarding the life cycle model in certain industries. Creating a life cycle model is one of the biggest challenges for organizations, as it is often the case that a large number of very different projects have to be managed. These differences can be due to the size of the project, the degree of complexity, the proportion of new technologies, customer requirements, or approval regulations when entering new business areas, for example. Accordingly, it can happen that organizations develop several alternative life cycle models and draw up instructions as to which one is to be used in which cases and what adaptation may be needed.

The selected life cycle models should not be seen as rigid constructs. On the one hand, they are adapted to the project-specific requirements for each project and, on the other, periodic reviews should take place to check whether the current life cycle models are still up-to-date and appropriate. The life cycle models are therefore subject to continuous evaluation and improvement, which must keep pace with the speed at which the organization or customer requirements change. For this reason, it is advisable to develop key performance indicators together with the life cycle models that make it possible to measure efficiency and effectiveness in meeting requirements. These key performance indicators should then also be used to continuously improve the life cycle models and associated planning.

Value proposition

The introduction of company-wide processes has many advantages. The associated value propositions are [SOURCE: INCOSE SEHv5, 7.1.1.1]

Provide repeatable/predictable performance across the projects in the organization (this helps the organization in planning and estimating future projects and in demonstrating reliability to stakeholders)
Leverage practices that have been proven successful by certain projects and instill those in other projects across the organization (where applicable)
Enable process improvement across the organization
Improve ability to efficiently transfer staff across projects as roles are defined and performed consistently
Enable leveraging lessons that are learned from one project for future projects to improve performance and avoid issues
Improve startup of new projects (less reinventing the wheel)

Additional benefits can be generated through the use of shared resources (e.g., tool support, document templates, knowledge management database).

Establish life cycle models

The life cycle models created by organizations are usually based on the following inputs:

Legislative, regulatory, and other government requirements
Industry SE and management‐related standards, training, and capability maturity models
Academic education, research results, future concepts and perspectives, and requests for financial support

Every organization would do well to create its own life cycle models. Since every organization is unique in terms of its industry, history and culture, the life cycle models should reflect this. Experience shows that life cycle models that work excellently in one organization cannot easily be transferred to other organizations.

In order to create the “right” life cycle models, all relevant stakeholders should be involved. This increases their commitment to the rules created and prevents the not-invented-here syndrome.

The creation of suitable life cycle models is therefore always a balancing act between regulatory requirements, appropriate best practices and the corporate culture or company history.

Maintain life cycle models

As the input variables for selected life cycle models are constantly changing, it is advisable to constantly monitor developments in relation to the inputs listed under “Establish life cycle models” above.

References

Works Cited

INCOSE. 2023. ''Systems Engineering Handbook: A Guide for System Life Cycle Processes and Activities,'' 5th Edition. Ed(s): D. Walden, T.M. Shortell, G.J. Roedler, B.A. Delicado, O. Mornas, Y. Yew-Seng, D. Endler. San Diego, CA: International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE). Available at https://www.incose.org/publications/se-handbook-v5.

ISO/IEC/IEEE 24748-1. 2024. ''Systems and software engineering — Life cycle management, Part 1: Guidelines for life cycle management.'' Geneva, Switzerland: International Organization for Standardization (ISO), International Electrotechnical Commission, and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Available at https://www.iso.org/standard/84709.html.

Primary References

None.

Additional References