CSA ISO/IEC 26580:21

CSA Preface Standards development within the Information Technology sector is harmonized with international standards development. Through the CSA Technical Committee on Information Technology (TCIT), Canadians serve as the SCC Mirror Committee (SMC) on ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 on Information Technology (ISO/IEC JTC1) for the Standards Council of Canada (SCC), the ISO member body for Canada and sponsor of the Canadian National Committee of the IEC. For brevity, this Standard will be referred to as "CSA ISO/IEC 26580" throughout. The International Standard was reviewed by the CSA TCIT under the jurisdiction of the CSA Strategic Steering Committee on Information and Communications Technology and deemed acceptable for use in Canada. This Standard has been formally approved, without modification, by the Technical Committee and has been developed in compliance with Standards Council of Canada requirements for National Standards of Canada. It has been published as a National Standard of Canada by CSA Group. Scope This document is a specialization of the more general reference model for software and systems product line engineering and management described in ISO/IEC 26550. The specialization defined herein addresses a class of methods and tools referred to as feature-based software and systems product line engineering, or feature-based PLE, which has emerged as a proven and repeatable product line engineering and management (PLE) practice supported by commercial tool providers. This document: — provides the terms and definitions specific to feature-based PLE; — defines how feature-based PLE is a specialization within the general ISO/IEC 26550 reference model for product line engineering and management; — defines a reference model for the overall structure and processes of feature-based PLE and describes how the elements of the reference model fit together; — defines interrelationships and methods for applying the elements and tools of the product line reference model; — defines required and supporting tool capabilities. In this document, products of feature-based PLE include digital work products that support the engineering of a system. Some of the artefacts are actually part of the delivered products, while other artefacts can be non-deliverable, such as physical or digital design models. The intended audience for this document comprises: — technology providers who wish to provide automated tool support for the reference model and processes described in this document; — champions within an organization who wish to introduce feature-based PLE throughout that organization; — IT staff within a PLE organization who will introduce and maintain the necessary technology to support feature-based PLE; — practitioner stakeholders who will use the provided technology to practice feature-based PLE; — technical and business managers who will sponsor and direct the methods necessary to practice feature-based PLE; — university professors, researchers, corporate trainers, and other educators who will create and share pedagogical materials about feature-based PLE and its benefits.