ISO/IEC 20741:2017 gives guidelines for the evaluation and selection of software engineering tools, covering a partial or full portion of the software engineering life cycle.

It establishes processes and activities to be applied for the evaluation of software engineering tools and selecting the most appropriate software engineering tools from several candidates.

It establishes, for selected processes, the tasks and activities that can be applied for the evaluation of software engineering tools and selecting the most appropriate software engineering tools from several candidates.

It establishes processes that can be applied for the evaluation of software engineering tools and selecting the most appropriate software engineering tools from several candidates.

As these processes are generic, organizations can adapt these generic processes to meet organizational needs. The software engineering tool evaluation and selection processes can be viewed in the larger context of the organization's technology adoption process.

ISO/IEC 20741:2017 provides the following:

a) guidance on identifying organizational requirements for software engineering tools;

b) guidance on mapping those requirements to software engineering tool characteristics to be evaluated;

c) a process for selecting the most appropriate software engineering tool from several tools, based on measurements of the defined characteristics.

NOTE 1 Guidance on mapping those requirements to software engineering tool capabilities to be evaluated is not covered by this document, but is covered by a series of standards for each tool area.

Primary users of this document are organizations that intend to adopt software engineering tools to support their software life cycle processes. Software tool suppliers can also use this document to describe characteristics of their software engineering tools.

ISO/IEC 20741:2017 is not intended to apply to:

a) software engineering frameworks whose purpose is to provide mechanisms for data, control and presentation integration;

b) general purpose tools (e.g. word processors, spreadsheets) which can be used in software engineering activities, nor software engineering tools of very narrow scope or specific purpose (e.g. a compiler);

c) planning for the implementation of software engineering tools within an organization.

NOTE 2 A user of this document can make the best possible selection of a software engineering tool and yet have no guarantee of a successful implementation.

The methods described in this document are useful not only for the selection of software engineering tools, but for any project where COTS/FOSS software can be selected instead of engaging in new software development.

To follow the guidance provided in this document consists in applying the activities and tasks that are attached to the defined processes to evaluate and select software. Organizations using this document for trade purposes can specify the minimum set of processes and their related activities and tasks, suitable to their given application.