scope:

The standard establishes a set of processes by which engineers and technologists can include consideration of ethical values throughout the stages of concept exploration and development, which encompass system initiation, analysis, and design. This standard provides engineers and technologists with an implementable process aligning innovation management processes, system design approaches, and software engineering methods to help address ethical concerns or risks during system design.

IEEE Std 7000™ does not give specific guidance on the design of algorithms to apply ethical values such as fairness and privacy.

Purpose

The goal of this standard is to enable organizations to design systems with explicit consideration of individual and societal ethical values, such as transparency, sustainability, privacy, fairness, and accountability, as well as values typically considered in system engineering, such as efficiency and effectiveness.

Projects conforming to IEEE Std 7000 balance management commitments for time and budget constraints with the long-term values of social responsiveness and accountability. To enable this, the commitment of top executives to establish and uphold organizational values is important.

NOTE-A system is sometimes considered as a product or as the services it provides.¹

¹Notes in text, tables, and figures of a standard are given for information only and do not contain requirements needed to implement this standard.