Systems Engineering Related Standards Landscape

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

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There are a multitude of standards across a number of standards development organizations (SDOs) that are related to systems engineering and systems domains. This topic examines the types of standards and provides a summary of the relevant standards for systems engineering (SE).

Standards Taxonomies and Types of Standards

There are many types of standards that focus on different aspects of SE. Table 1 provides the types of the current standards and a description of each type.

Table 1. Types of Systems Engineering Standards. (SEBoK Original)

Standard Type	Description of Type
Concepts and Terminology	Defines the terminology and describes the concepts of a specific domain.
Process	Defines a specific process or set of processes, giving normative requirements for the essential elements of the process or processes. It can give guidance to the requirements.
Requirements	Defines the requirements for something. Most often used for actions, activities, or practices and not objects (see specifications).
Procedure (Practice, Activity)	Defines instructions, approach, or requirements on how to do something. Sometimes a description of best practices.
Application Guides / Guidance	Defines guidelines or provides interpretation of a published standard.
Management System	Defines requirements for management of a specific focus area.
Specification	Defines, describes, or identifies something precisely, including its requirements. Usually defines requirements, design, and functionality of a product, system, or project and is normative.
Artifact Description	Defines the form, attributes, content requirements, or properties of an artifact.
Reference Model	Defines an abstract or conceptual framework that provides a structured means to understand and communicate a system, architecture or element. Often used as a mechanism to gain commonality and interoperability.
Process Reference Model (PRM)	Defines a collection of processes necessary and sufficient to achieve a nominated business outcome.
Process Assessment Model (PAM)	Defines requirements and guidance for assessing attributes of nominated processes or attributes of a nominated collection of processes.
Guide to Body of Knowledge (BOK)	Defines a collection and description of the current knowledge sources in a domain, or a guide to knowledge sources that comprise the body of knowledge.

Additionally, a taxonomy of the SE related standards can help to understand the available set of standards.  A standards taxonomy is defined as an orderly classification of standards according to their attributes and relationships.  Figure 1 provides an example of a taxonomy for the SE related standards.

Figure 1. A Taxonomy of SE Related Standards (Adapted from Roedler 2023). Reprinted with permission of Garry Roedler. All other rights are reserved by the copyright owner.

Description of the SE Standards Categories Presented in the Sample Taxonomy

Figure 1 illustrates the focus and level of detail for many of the SE related standards.  This figure shows that there are different purposes or objectives for these knowledge assets.  The following provides a brief description of the objective for each category in the sample taxonomy.  Each of the categories provides specific utility to the SE stakeholders.   

Foundation – Vocabulary: This provides a common set of terminology and definitions from across a wide range of standards and references for systems engineering.  It includes the vocabulary from ISO/IEC JTC1/SC7, IEEE, INCOSE, and PMI.  The vocabulary is both published in ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765, Vocabulary and in an online resource called SEVOCAB at https://pascal.computer.org/.

Foundation – Body of Knowledge: This includes resources that are either published as bodies of knowledge for systems engineering or related areas or are recognized consensus references that cover the breadth of systems engineering.  The SEBoK is the sole body of knowledge for SE.  The INCOSE SE Handbook covers the breadth of SE and is the key resource used for SE Certification.

Life Cycle Processes and Concepts: This includes the top-level standards and references that identify and define the system life cycle processes and the concepts that are essential for understanding, planning, and executing system life cycles and processes.  

Assessment / Governance: This includes standards that are focused on the assessment or governance of processes, products, or other concerns in the engineering of systems or their life cycles.  

Process Elaborations: This includes standards that focus specifically on one or more processes.  These standards provide lower level details about the definitions, application, and other considerations that aid the planning and execution of the processes.  The processes trace to the system life cycle processes identified in ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288, the INCOSE SE Handbook, and/or the SEBoK.

Application Guides: This includes the standards and references that provide key insights and guidance for the other standards and help users to understand the potential considerations for planning and executing the standards.  Some of these standards and guides provide useful elaborations or notes regarding specific information or requirements in the standards or topics they refer to, such as ISO/IEC/IEEE 24748-2, A guide for the application of ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288.  

Artifact Descriptions: This includes descriptions and/or requirements for specific artifacts (or information items) related to the system life cycle processes.  

Tools: This includes standards that provide information or requirements related to tools that are applicable to the system life cycle processes.

Other Guidance: This includes any guidance that is outside of the scope of the other categories in the taxonomy.

Systems Engineering Related Standards

Summary of Systems Engineering Related Standards

Table 2 contains a partial list of SE related standards. This table does not include all SE related standards, as there are many are focused on a specific domain, sector, or user group (e.g., it does not include standards from a specific government agenda). The table does include standards that are considered to be widely applicable to systems engineering and systems life cycle management system life cycle processes, such as ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 (2023).  A link to the official abstract or information page has been provided in the first column for each standard.

Table 2. Summary of Systems Engineering Standards and Guides. (SEBoK Original)

Standard or Guide	Title
ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288	System life cycle processes
SEBoK	Guide to the Systems Engineering Body of Knowledge (SEBoK)
INCOSE SE Handbook 5th Ed	INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook (5th Edition)
SAE 1001	Integrated Project Processes for Engineering a System (replaced ANSI/EIA 632)
NATO AAP-48	NATO System Life Cycle Processes
SE Vision 2035 (INCOSE)	Systems Engineering Vision 2035: Engineering Solutions for a Better World
ISO/IEC/IEEE 15026-1	Systems and software assurance concepts and vocabulary
ISO/IEC/IEEE 15026-2	Assurance case
ISO/IEC/IEEE 15026-3	System integrity levels
ISO/IEC/IEEE 15026-4	Assurance in the life cycle
ISO/IEC/IEEE 15289	Content of life-cycle information items (documentation)
ISO/IEC/IEEE 15939	Measurement process
ISO/IEC/IEEE 16085	Risk management
ISO/IEC/IEEE 16326	Project management
ISO/IEC/IEEE 21839	System of systems (SoS) considerations in life cycle stages of a system
ISO/IEC/IEEE 21840	Guidelines for the utilization of ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 in the context of system of systems (SoS)
ISO/IEC/IEEE 21841	Taxonomy of system of systems (SoS)
ISO/IEC/IEEE 24641	Methods and tools for model-based systems and software engineering
ISO/IEC/IEEE 24748-1	Guidelines for life cycle management
ISO/IEC/IEEE 24748-2	Guidelines for the application of ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288
ISO/IEC/IEEE 24748-4	Systems engineering management planning
ISO/IEC/IEEE 24748-6	System and software integration
ISO/IEC/IEEE 24748-7	Application of systems engineering on defense programs (previously IEEE 15288.1)
ISO/IEC/IEEE 24748-8	Technical reviews and audits on defense programs (previously IEEE 15288.2)
ISO/IEC/IEEE 24748-9	Application of system and software life cycle processes in epidemic prevention and control systems
ISO/IEC/IEEE 24748-10	Guidelines for systems engineering agility
ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765	Systems and software engineering - Vocabulary
ISO/IEC/IEEE 26550	Reference model for product line engineering and management
ISO/IEC/IEEE 26580	Methods and tools for the feature-based approach to software and systems product line engineering
ISO/IEC/IEEE 29148	Requirements engineering
ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010	Architecture description
ISO/IEC/IEEE 42020	Architecture processes
ISO/IEC/IEEE 42024	Architecture fundamentals
ISO/IEC/IEEE 42030	Architecture evaluation framework
ISO/IEC/IEEE 42042	Reference architectures
ISO/IEC 29110	Standards and guides for very small entities (VSEs) (Multi-part set)
ISO/IEC TS 33060	Process assessment model for system life cycle processes
ISO 19450	Object Process Methodology (OPM)
ISO 9001	Quality Management Systems - Requirements
ISO 10007	Guidelines for configuration management
ISO 10303-233	Product data representation and exchange Part 233: Application protocol: Systems engineering
ISO 15704	Requirements for Enterprise - Reference Architectures and Methodologies
ISO 19439	Framework for Enterprise Modeling
ISO 31000	Risk management - Guidelines
IEC 31010	Risk assessment techniques
ANSI/AIAA G-043B	Guide to the Preparation of Operational Concept Documents
ANSI/EIA-649C (SAE)	National Consensus Standard for Configuration Management
CMMI- Dev V3.0	CMMI® for Development V3.0
ECSS-E-ST-10C	Systems Engineering General Requirements
ECSS-E-ST-10-02	Space Engineering - Verification
ECSS-E-ST-10-06	Space Engineering - Technical Requirements Specification
ECSS-E-ST-10-24	Space Engineering - Interface Control
ECSS-M-ST-10	Space Project Management - Project Planning and Implementation
ECSS-M-ST-40	Space Project Management - Configuration and Information Management
ECSS-M-ST-60	Space Project Management – Cost and Schedule Management
ECSS-M-ST-80	Space Project Management - Risk Management
ECSS-M-00-03	Space Project Management - Risk Management
EIA 748D (SAE)	Earned Value Management System
CEN EN 9277	Programme management - Guide for the management of Systems Engineering
IEC 62853	Open systems dependability
IEEE 828	Configuration Management in Systems and Software Engineering
NIST SP 800-160 Vol 1	Systems Security Engineering: Considerations for a Multidisciplinary Approach in the Engineering of Trustworthy Secure Systems
NIST SP 800-160 Vol 2	Developing Cyber-Resilient Systems: A Systems Security Engineering Approach
OMG SysML TM V2.0	OMG Systems Modeling Language

Practical Considerations

Key pitfalls and good practices related to systems engineering standards are described in the next two sections.

Pitfalls

Some of the key pitfalls encountered in the selection and use of SE standards are provided in Table 3.

Table 3. Pitfalls in Using Systems Engineering Standards. (SEBoK Original)

Pitfall Name	Pitfall Description
Turnkey Process Provision	Expecting the standard to fully provide your SE processes without any elaboration or tailoring.
No Need for Product Knowledge	Expecting that the standard can be used without any functional or domain knowledge since the standard is the collective industry knowledge.
No Process Integration	Lack of integrating the standards requirements with the organization or project processes.

Good Practices

Some good practices as gathered from the references are provided in Table 4.

Table 4. Good Practices in Using Systems Engineering Standards. (SEBoK Original)

Good Practice Name	Good Practice Description
Tailor for Business Needs	Tailor the standard within conformance requirements to best meet business needs.
Integration into Project	Requirements of the standard should be integrated into the project via processes or product/service requirements.

References

Works Cited

Roedler, G. 2010. "An Overview of ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288, System Life Cycle Processes." Proceedings of the 4th Asian Pacific Council on Systems Engineering (APCOSE) Conference, 4-6 October 2010, Keelung, Taiwan.

Roedler, G. 2023. " SE Standards and Guidance – Revisions and Trends." International Council on Systems Engineering, Boston, MA, USA.

Roedler, G. 2011. "Towards Integrated Systems and Software Engineering Standards." National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) Conference, San Diego, CA, USA.

Roedler, G. 2015. "Evolution of SE Standards and Practices – ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 Based Harmonization." National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) Conference, Springfield, VA, USA.

Primary References

INCOSE. 2023. INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook 5th Edition. International Council on Systems Engineering. Hoboken, NJ, USA: John Wiley & Sons. INCOSE SE Handbook.

ISO/IEC/IEEE. 2023. Systems and Software Engineering -- System Life Cycle Processes. Geneva, Switzerland: International Organisation for Standardisation / International Electrotechnical Commissions / Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288: 2023.

ISO/IEC/IEEE. 2024. "Part 1: Guidelines for life cycle management," in Systems and software engineering--life cycle management.. Geneva, Switzerland: International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)/ Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). ISO/IEC/IEEE 24748-1:2024.

ISO/IEC/IEEE. 2024. Systems and Software Engineering -- Life Cycle Management – Part 2: Guidelines for the application of ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 (system life cycle processes). Geneva, Switzerland: International Organisation for Standardisation / International Electrotechnical Commissions / Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. ISO/IEC/IEEE 24748-2:2024.

ISO/IEC/IEEE. 2017. Systems and Software Engineering -  Vocabulary (SEVocab). Geneva, Switzerland: International Organization for Standardization (ISO)/International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)/Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765:2017.

NATO. 2022. NATO System Life Cycle Processes.  Brussels, Belgium: North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). NATO AAP-48.

SAE. 2018. Integrated Project Processes for Engineering a System. Warrendale, PA, USA: SAE International. SAE 1001.

Roedler, G. 2010. An Overview of ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288, System Life Cycle Processes. Proceedings of the 4th Asian Pacific Council on Systems Engineering (APCOSE) Conference, 4-6 October 2010, Keelung, Taiwan.

Roedler, G. 2023. " SE Standards and Guidance – Revisions and Trends." International Council on Systems Engineering, Boston, MA, USA.

Roedler, G. 2011. "Towards Integrated Systems and Software Engineering Standards." National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) Conference, San Diego, CA, USA.

Roedler, G. 2015. "Evolution of SE Standards and Practices – ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 Based Harmonization." National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA) Conference, Springfield, VA, USA.

Additional References

None.

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