BS ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765:2017

This standard BS ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765:2017 Systems and software engineering. Vocabulary is classified in these ICS categories:

• 35.080 Software
• 01.040.35 Information technology (Vocabularies)

1.1 General

Consistent with ISO vocabulary standards, each technical committee is responsible for standard terminology in its area of specialization. This document provides a common vocabulary applicable to all systems and software engineering work falling within the scope of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7, Software and systems engineering, and the IEEE Computer Society Systems and Software Engineering Standards Committee (IEEE-CS S2ESC).

The scope of each concept defined has been chosen to provide a definition that is suitable for general application. In those circumstances where a restricted application is concerned, a more specific definition might be needed.

Terms have been excluded if they were:

• considered to be parochial to one group or organization;

• company proprietary or trademarked;

• multiword terms whose meaning could be inferred from the definitions of the component words; and

• terms whose meaning in the information technology (IT) field could be directly inferred from their common English dictionary meaning.

1.2 Relationship of the print and internet-accessible versions

The primary tool for maintaining this vocabulary is a database that is modified in a controlled fashion. Hosted by the IEEE Computer Society, the SEVOCAB (systems and software engineering vocabulary) database is publicly accessible at www.computer.org/sevocab ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765 is issued periodically as a formal, published document reflecting a "snapshot" of the database.

The copyright notice provided with the database permits users to copy definitions from the database as long as the source of the definition is cited. Permitting public use of the definitions in the database is intended to encourage the use of other ISO/IEC JTC 1 and IEEE systems and software engineering standards.

1.3 Vocabulary structure

Entries in the vocabulary are arranged alphabetically. Blanks precede all other characters in alphabetizing. Hyphens and slashes (- and /) follow all other characters in alphabetizing.

Preferred terms are shown in bold. Synonyms or admitted terms (terms with the same meaning as the preferred term), are listed under the preferred term in plain text, and can be located by searching.

Terms, definitions, and notes use spelling preferred in the US. The use of capital letters has been minimized and generally limited to proper names and acronyms. In some cases, the source standard uses another correct spelling (such as behaviour rather than behavior, online rather than online). Technical terms in English often change form from two words to a hyphenated word to a single word as they become more familiar, e.g., real time to realtime to realtime. Hence, other correct spellings and capitalization of the terms, according to a national standard, an authoritative general dictionary or accepted style guide, can be used with the definitions.

An entry can consist of a single word, such as "software"; a phrase or compound term, such as "test case"; or an abbreviated term, such as "CDR". Phrases are given in their natural order (test plan) rather than in reversed order (plan, test). Abbreviated terms can be listed separately as well as in parentheses following the source term. Terms that are verbs are shown without the infinitive marker "to".

After each term, numbered definitions are listed in order of preference, or from the most general to the more specific usages. The different definitions can show the use of a term as a noun, verb and adjective.

This document includes references to the active source standards for each definition, so that the use of the term can be further explored. The sources of most of the definitions are ISO JTC 1/SC 7 or IEEE Computer Society standards and the PMI Glossary, Fifth Edition. Sources are listed in the Bibliography. Additional sources for definitions drawn from outside the scope of systems and software engineering are in Annex A, List of References. In some cases, the same definition can also be found in other active or withdrawn standards. No source is shown if the original source standard has been withdrawn or archived and the definition has been retained in this vocabulary.

Notes (comments), Examples, and Figures taken from the source standards have been included to clarify selected definitions.

Cross references are used to show a term's relationship to other terms in the dictionary: cf. refers to related terms that are not synonyms.

1.4 PMI Glossaryprovisions

The Project Management Institute (PMI) Glossary definitions have been included without alteration in accordance with the copyright agreement. Some of these terms and definitions are not worded according to ISO/IEC or IEEE styles. Many of these definitions include explanatory material. For other terms and other definitions that have ISO/IEC and IEEE standards as their source, explanatory matter is shown in the Notes and Examples.