Defining stakeholder relationships: Fid-Bau Portal

Defining stakeholder relationships

Lawson, H.W.

Jointly developed by the ISO and IEC in 1995, the ISO/IEC 12207 standard, Software Life Cycle Processes, provides specific guidance in defining the roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders in the life cycle of a software project, product, or service. And the software community is beginning to take heed. The standard itself is relatively brief, detailing 17 processes in less than 40 pages. The 17 processes are divided into three main process groups: primary processes include acquisition, supply, development, operation, and maintenance; supporting processes include documentation, configuration management, quality assurance, verification, validation, joint review, audit, and problem resolution; organizational processes include management, infrastructure, improvement, and training. Each process breaks down into relevant activities and tasks that reflect a clear plan-do-check-act cycle. One further process, tailoring, specifies the activities and tasks to follow in adapting the standard to a particular situation or application. But just how useful is this standard? Based upon personal mentoring experiences, the author describes two case studies that demonstrate the standard's importance and versatility: Haldex Traction AB of Landskrona, Sweden, the supplier of a safety-critical automotive component; and Cambiot Healthcare Systems AB of Linkoping, Sweden, the supplier of a medical information system for hospitals and clinics. In these two cases, ISO/IEC 12207 has provided important value-added guidance in both systems and software engineering.