scope:

This technical report describes a potential family of standards, named the Common Industry Formats (CIF), that document the specification and evaluation of the usability of interactive systems. The purpose of this document is to provide a general overview of the CIF Framework and contents, definitions, and the relationship of the framework elements. The intended users of the framework are identified, as well as the situations in which the framework may be applied. The assumptions and constraints of the framework are also enumerated. The framework content includes: . Consistent terminology and classification of specification, evaluation and reporting . A definition of the type and scope of formats and the high level structure to be used for documenting required information and the results of evaluation. The framework is applicable to software and hardware products used for predefined tasks. The information items are intended to be used as part of system-level documentation resulting from development processes such as those in ISO 9241-210 (previously ISO 13407), and ISO/IEC JTC1/SC7 process standards. The CIF framework focuses on documenting those elements needed for design and development of usable systems rather than prescribing a specific process and is intended to be used in conjunction with existing standards including ISO 9241-210, ISO 9241, ISO 20282, ISO 9126 and the ISO/IEC 25000 SquaRE series. This framework does not prescribe any kind of method, lifecycle or process. To ensure that these information items can be used within the broadest range of process models and can be used in combination with other information items, the descriptions are given in the format defined in ISO/IEC 15289 and ISO/IEC 15504-6. The information items for documenting usability-related information can be integrated in any process models. For the purpose of establishing process models, ISO/IEC 24774 and ISO/IEC 15504-2 specify the format and conformance requirements for process models respectively. In addition ISO/IEC 15289 defines the types and content of information items developed and used in process models for system and software lifecycle management. ISO/IEC 15504-5 and 6 define work products, including information items, for the purpose of process capability assessment. Process models and associated information items for human-centred design of interactive systems are contained in ISO 9241-210 and ISO PAS 18152 respectively.