This part of ISO/IEC 14598 provides requirements, recommendations and guidelines for a supporting function which is responsible for the management of software product evaluation and for technologies necessary for software product evaluation.

The role of the supporting function includes motivating people and training them for the evaluation activities, preparing appropriate evaluation documents and methods, and responding to queries on evaluation technologies.

Main targets for evaluation support are software development, system integration and maintenance, including software acquisition, at both project and organisation levels.

Technology management is related to the planning and management of a software evaluation process, metrics and tools. This includes the management of development, acquisition, standardisation, control, transfer and feedback of evaluation technology experiences within the organisation.

The intended users of this part of ISO/IEC 14598 are people who are responsible for

• managing the use of the evaluation technology,
• supporting software product evaluation,
• managing software development organisations,

or people in a quality assurance function. However, it is also applicable to managers involved in other software related activities.