National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of ISO/IEC 29110‑7‑1:2026.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee IST/15, Software and systems engineering.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 30 November 2026.

Foreword

ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are members of ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical committees established by the respective organization to deal with particular fields of technical activity. ISO and IEC technical committees collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other international organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also take part in the work.

The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the different types of document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives or www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs).

ISO and IEC draw attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a) patent(s). ISO and IEC take no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent rights in respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, ISO and IEC had not received notice of (a) patent(s) which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that this may not represent the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at www.iso.org/patents and https://patents.iec.ch. ISO and IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not constitute an endorsement.

For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) see www.iso.org/iso/foreword.html. In the IEC, see www.iec.ch/understanding-standards.

This document was prepared by Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology, Subcommittee SC 7, Software and systems engineering.

A list of all parts in the ISO/IEC 29110 series can be found on the ISO and IEC websites.

Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html and www.iec.ch/national-committees.

Introduction

0.1 Introduction to the ISO/IEC 29110 series

Very small entities (VSEs) around the world are creating valuable products and services. For the purpose of the ISO/IEC 29110 series, a VSE is an enterprise, organization (e.g. government agency, non-profit organization), department or project having up to 25 people. Many VSEs develop and/or maintain systems and software components used in those systems, either as independent products or incorporated in the larger systems. Due to this a recognition of VSEs as suppliers of high-quality products is required.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) SME and Entrepreneurship Outlook report (2019) “Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and entrepreneurship are essential drivers of economic and social well-being. Representing 99 % of all businesses, generating about 60 % of employment and totalling between 50 % and 60 % of value added in the OECD area. Almost one person out of three is employed in a micro firm with less than 10 employees”. The challenge facing OECD governments is to provide a business environment that supports the competitiveness of this large heterogeneous business population and that promotes a vibrant entrepreneurial culture.

From studies and surveys conducted, it is clear that the majority of International Standards do not address the needs of VSEs. Implementation of and conformance with these standards is difficult, if not impossible.

Consequently, VSEs have no, or very limited, ways to be recognized as entities that produce quality systems/system elements including software in their domain. Therefore, VSEs are excluded from some economic activities.

It has been found that VSEs find it difficult to relate International Standards to their business needs and to justify the effort required to apply standards to their business practices. Most VSEs can neither afford the resources, in terms of number of employees, expertise, budget and time, nor do they see a net benefit in establishing over-complex systems or software life cycle processes. To address some of these difficulties, a set of guidelines has been developed based on a set of VSE characteristics. The guidelines are based on subsets of appropriate standards processes, activities, tasks, and outcomes, referred to as Profiles. The purpose of a profile is to define a subset of International Standards relevant to the VSEs' context; for example, processes, activities, tasks, and outcomes of ISO/IEC/IEEE 12207 for software; and processes, activities, tasks, and outcomes of ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 for systems; and information products (documentation) of ISO/IEC/IEEE 15289 for software and systems.

VSEs can achieve recognition through implementing a profile and by being audited against ISO/IEC 29110 specifications.

The ISO/IEC 29110 series can be applied at any phase of system or software development within a life cycle. The ISO/IEC 29110 series is intended to be used by VSEs that do not have experience or expertise in adapting/tailoring ISO/IEC/IEEE 12207 or ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 standards to the needs of a specific project. VSEs that have expertise in adapting/tailoring ISO/IEC/IEEE 12207 or ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 are encouraged to use those standards instead of the ISO/IEC 29110 series.

The ISO/IEC 29110 series is intended to be used with any life cycle, such as waterfall, iterative, incremental, evolutionary or agile.

Systems, in the context of the ISO/IEC 29110 series, are typically composed of hardware and software components.

The ISO/IEC 29110 series, targeted by audience, has been developed to improve system or software and/or service quality, and process performance. Figure 1 describes the ISO/IEC 29110 series and positions the parts within the framework of reference.

If a new profile is needed, ISO/IEC 29110‑4 or ISO/IEC 29110‑6 and or ISO/IEC 29110‑7, ISO/IEC 29110‑5 can be developed with minimal impact to existing documents.

ISO/IEC 29110‑1‑1 introduces processes, life cycle and standardization concepts, the taxonomy (catalogue) of ISO/IEC 29110 profiles and the ISO/IEC 29110 series. ISO/IEC 29110‑1‑1 also introduces the characteristics and needs of a VSE, and clarifies the rationale for specific profiles, documents, standards and guidelines. ISO/IEC 29110‑1‑2 defines the terms common to the ISO/IEC 29110 series.

ISO/IEC 29110‑2 introduces the concepts for systems and software engineering profiles for VSEs. It establishes the logic behind the definition and application of profiles. For standardized profiles, it specifies the elements common to all profiles (structure, requirements, conformance, assessment). For domain-specific profiles (profiles that are not standardized and developed outside of the ISO process), it provides general guidance adapted from the definition of standardized profiles.

ISO/IEC 29110‑3 defines certification schemes, assessment guidelines and compliance requirements for process capability assessment, conformity assessments, and self-assessments for process improvements. ISO/IEC 29110‑3 also contains information that can be useful to developers of certification and assessment methods and developers of certification and assessment tools. ISO/IEC 29110‑3 is addressed to people who have direct involvement with the assessment process, for example, the auditor, certification and accreditation bodies and the sponsor of the audit, who need guidance on ensuring that the requirements for performing an audit have been met.

ISO/IEC 29110‑4 provides the specifications for all generic profiles of the generic profile group that are based on subsets of appropriate standards elements.

ISO/IEC 29110‑5 provides a management, engineering and service delivery guidelines for profiles of the generic profile group.

ISO/IEC 29110‑6 provides the specifications for specific profiles that are based on subsets of appropriate standards elements.

ISO/IEC 29110‑7 provides a guideline for each profile of the specific profile group.

0.2 Introduction to this document

Industry and large organisations recognize the value of VSEs, i.e. enterprises, organisations (e.g. government agency, non-profit organisation), projects or departments with up to 25 people, in contributing with emerging new technology that bigger organisations cannot use them as easily nor incorporate them in their solutions as fast.

But often these VSEs are not ready to comply with the stringent requirements for space projects. The purpose of this document is to ultimately achieve the process capacity to participate in the development of critical software in the space domain. But not all software in the space domain can be addressed. For example, for software embedded in products that can be fatal to human life, additional safeguards will be required.

VSE in space domain can demonstrate the quality in their processes in a stepwise approach to eventually participate in space projects in a faster and feasible way.

The mainstream of space projects so far has been large rockets and artificial satellites developed by government agencies and large organizations. Inevitably, the development process applied in space projects was rigorous and extensive. In recent years, these traditional space development trends have changed. Development of small artificial satellites and system development, in which multiple small artificial satellites called “satellite constellation” are linked and collaborate, is being actively considered by small companies from around the world.

Many start-ups have entered the development of these small space systems and are enlivening the industry. In short, many VSEs are entering the space industry. However, in many cases, these VSEs are not ready to comply with the development requirements of space projects. These challenges involve discipline and more rigorous processes than for non-critical systems. Although the processes involved in software engineering are extremely important in the space sector, there are not many space-related standards focused on VSE.

In many cases, VSEs refer to space agency standards and implement processes that are not appropriate for their scale and risk.

VSEs in the space domain, i.e. space-VSEs, can demonstrate the quality of software processes expected by the space domain in the risk-based approach to participate in space projects.

This document provides management and engineering guidelines for the specific space profiles.

This document presents an Intermediate space profile (Clause 6) and an Advanced space profile (Clause 7).To use this document, it is presupposed that the VSE has already implemented the software Basic profile guidelines (i.e. ISO/IEC 29110‑5‑1‑2). The correspondence between the four-stage roadmap of the generic profile guidelines and the space profile guidelines is shown in Table 1.

The processes in this document are contained in Clauses 6, 7, 8 and 9. It is recognised that specific projects or organizations may not need to use all the processes provided by this document. Therefore, implementation of this document typically involves selecting a set of processes suitable to the organization or project and will so be reflected in the project plan of each project.

Using this document, a VSE can obtain the following benefits:

Basic profile:

the Basic profile is the starting point for space-VSE. This profile is identical to that in ISO/IEC 29110‑5‑1‑2; it is not included in this document;
refer to ISO/IEC 29110‑5‑1‑2 for the benefits of the Basic profile.

Intermediate space profile:

an agreed set of project requirements and expected work products is delivered to the customers;
a disciplined management process that provides project visibility and corrective actions of project problems and deviations is performed;
managing and controlling project work products;
ensuring that project problems are identified and resolved;
ensuring that work products and processes are aligned with the project discipline.

Advanced space profile:

ensuring that safety and/or dependability concepts and related requirements are obtained;
a safety and dependability related process that achieve safety and dependability requirements of product is performed;
strengthening non-testing verification activities.

The users of this document select the processes to be deployed and map them onto the specific project life cycle model. The parties are also responsible for selecting and applying the software development methods and for performing the activities and tasks suitable for the software project.

1 Scope

This document provides guidelines for the implementation of the specific space profiles for VSEs through a set of development processes.

This document is applicable to small suppliers, developers, managers and quality assurance managers of software products in the space domain.

The document can also be applied by a single party through a self-imposed set of processes.

This document does not prescribe a specific system or software life cycle model, development methodology, model or technique.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

4 Conventions and abbreviated terms

4.1 Naming, diagramming and definition conventions

4.2 Abbreviated terms

5 Guideline for the implementation of the processes

5.1 Overview

5.2 Concept of space profiles

6 Description of the Intermediate space profile

6.1 Overview

6.2 Configuration management (CM) process

6.3 Problem resolution management process

6.4 Verification (VE) process

6.5 Quality assurance process

7 Description of the Advanced space profile

7.1 Overview

7.2 Requirements elicitation (RE) process

7.3 Safety and dependability assurance (SDA) process

8 Role descriptions

9 Work product descriptions

9.1 States of work products

9.2 Description of work products

Bibliography