This part of ISO/IEC 14598 contains requirements, recommendations and guidelines for the systematic measurement, assessment and evaluation of software product quality during acquisition of “off-the-shelf” software products, custom software products, or modifications to existing software products. It uses the software quality model described in ISO/IEC 9126-1; expands on the general process for evaluating software quality that is defined in ISO/IEC 14598-1; and uses the process for acquisition that is defined in ISO/IEC 12207. It can be used in conjunction with ISO/IEC 12119, ISO/IEC 14598-2 (new), ISO/IEC 14598-3 (new) and ISO/IEC 14598-6. The steps of the evaluation process are similar between this part of ISO/IEC 14598 and ISO/IEC 14598-5, but the context of use is quite different. In the case that acquirers entrust second or third parties with evaluations, ISO/IEC 14598-5 is required to be applied. In the case that acquirers require third party testing of software packages against the quality requirements for the package, ISO/IEC 12119 may be applied.

The evaluation process described in this part of ISO/IEC 14598 also helps to meet the objectives of deciding on the acceptance of a single product, or for selecting a product from among alternate products. The evaluation process may be tailored to the nature and integrity level of the application. It is also sufficiently flexible to accommodate the wide range of forms and uses of software products in a cost-effective manner.

This part of ISO/IEC 14598 is intended for, but not limited to, project managers, system engineers, development and maintenance software engineering staff and end users who plan to acquire software products, and also suppliers who provide such products.

The target software products of the evaluation process in this part of ISO/IEC 14598 can be integrated into a larger system as components or can be used stand-alone. They are classified as:

• Commercial off-the-shelf software products;
• Existing software products developed or acquired for other applications, or for a wide range of common applications;
• Custom software products or modifications to existing software products.

The evaluation process that is defined in this part is also applicable to CASE tools. Because evaluation of CASE tools is specifically addressed in ISO/IEC 14102, CASE tools are considered out of scope of this part of ISO/IEC 14598.

ISO/IEC 14598-4 is designed to work in partnership with other standards. For systems with high integrity requirements, additional requirements may be included in the evaluation process described in ISO/IEC 14598-4, that are derived from sector-specific standards, e.g., IEC 880, DOA-167A , MOD-55, etc.