ISO/IEC 20741, Systems and software engineering – Guideline for the evaluation and selection of software engineering tools, has just been released. It’s a guide for a more cost-effective way to select software engineering tools for your organization. It does this by showing you how to organize software tool functions and features into a standardized process.
When you go to choose a software package for engineering or configuration management, you need a methodology to compare capabilities and functions. The ISO/IEC 20741 provides you with a framework for review of the processes and characteristics of this type of software.
It starts with an overview of the process of evaluation and selection itself. Then it reviews the preparation process, the structuring process and the evaluation process. Next, the engineering tool section is addressed. The formal standard ends with a general discussion of software tool characteristics themselves.
Two Annexes are included to help you execute this process. The first, Annex A, provides you with examples of selection algorithms. Annex B gives you a list of evaluation report contents you should include. A 22-item bibliography completes the publication.
The new ISO/IEC 20741 can be used in conjunction with the capabilities lists that are found in ISO/IEC TR 18018, ISO/IEC TR 24766, and ISO/IEC 30130. It follows the product evaluation model found in ISO/IEC 25041. And it adopts the model of software product characteristics from ISO/IEC 25010.
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