Overview
ISO/IEC/IEEE 24748-10:2026 is an international standard providing guidelines for enhancing agility in systems engineering. Developed jointly by ISO, IEC, and IEEE, this standard addresses the strategic aspects necessary to enable rapid and effective response to evolving knowledge and dynamic environments in systems and software engineering projects. The document is particularly relevant to users of ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288, including project managers, technical leads, and organizations responsible for system life cycle processes.
By emphasizing what needs to be accomplished and why-rather than prescribing how-this standard supports organizations and individuals seeking to improve adaptability, resilience, and collaboration within complex engineering endeavors.
Key Topics
- Adaptable Modular Architecture: Encourages the composition and evolution of products and processes through reusable, configurable modules, supporting efficient experimentation and changes.
- Iterative Incremental Development: Focuses on building capabilities in small increments with regular feedback and correction, reducing rework and improving product quality.
- Attentive Situational Awareness: Promotes active monitoring of internal and external factors to identify risks and opportunities, enabling timely and informed responses.
- Attentive Decision Making: Facilitates responsive decision processes that link awareness to action, empowering teams to address current realities effectively.
- Common-Mission Teaming: Enhances collaboration by fostering a shared mission among diverse stakeholders, building high-performing, cohesive teams.
- Shared-Knowledge Management: Accelerates learning and promotes reliable information sharing across teams through tools, meetings, and digital environments.
- Continual Integration and Test: Detects integration issues early by synchronizing development activities with regular integration and testing cycles.
- Being Agile: Cultivates behaviors that sense, respond, and evolve in reaction to dynamic environments, embodying the principles of agility rather than following rigid procedures.
Applications
Practical applications of ISO/IEC/IEEE 24748-10:2026 are broad and impactful across various industries and sectors, especially where projects involve human-made systems and services with uncertain or rapidly changing environments.
- System Lifecycle Management: Provides strategies to complement and enhance existing life cycle models, making processes more responsive and adaptable.
- Project and Technical Management: Supports project managers and technical leads in implementing agile principles to deal with dynamic requirements, uncertainties, and stakeholder needs.
- Cross-Disciplinary Engineering Teams: Promotes effective communication and teamwork among multidisciplinary groups, ensuring collective pursuit of mission objectives.
- Organizational Capability Building: Offers guidelines for organizations aiming to improve their capacity to address challenges associated with complex systems in turbulent environments.
- Development of Complex Systems: Suitable for hardware, software, or hybrid system development, especially in sectors such as defense, transportation, or critical infrastructure where adaptability is essential.
Through its strategic focus, the standard helps organizations drive continual improvement, maximize value delivery, and maintain alignment with customer and stakeholder needs in fast-changing contexts.
Related Standards
- ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288: Systems and software engineering – System life cycle processes. Provides the foundational framework for life cycle processes addressed in ISO/IEC/IEEE 24748-10:2026.
- ISO/IEC/IEEE 24748-1: Systems and software engineering – Life cycle management – Guidance on the application of ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288.
- ISO/IEC/IEEE 32675: Provides principles and practices for DevOps, supporting improved collaboration and integration across development and operational domains.
- ISO/IEC TR 24587: Elaborates agile and DevOps principles and practices, supplementing guidance for effectively integrating agility in software and systems engineering.
- ISO/IEC 33202: Focuses on core agile practices, particularly related to software engineering.
- ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765: Provides a comprehensive vocabulary for systems and software engineering, supporting clear communication of concepts.
Organizations seeking to implement or enhance systems engineering agility should consider these related standards for comprehensive guidance and best practices aligned with global standards in life cycle management and engineering agility.