IEC 62960:2020

IEC 62960 ®
Edition 1.0 2020-03
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
NORME
INTERNATIONALE
Dependability reviews during the life cycle

Revues de la sûreté de fonctionnement au cours du cycle de vie

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IEC 62960 ®
Edition 1.0 2020-03
INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD
NORME
INTERNATIONALE
Dependability reviews during the life cycle

Revues de la sûreté de fonctionnement au cours du cycle de vie

INTERNATIONAL
ELECTROTECHNICAL
COMMISSION
COMMISSION
ELECTROTECHNIQUE
INTERNATIONALE
ICS 03.120.01 ISBN 978-2-8322-7977-9

– 2 – IEC 62960:2020  IEC 2020
CONTENTS
FOREWORD . 5
INTRODUCTION . 7
1 Scope . 8
2 Normative references . 8
3 Terms and definitions . 8
3.1 Terms and definitions . 8
3.2 Abbreviated terms . 11
4 Introducing dependability reviews . 11
4.1 General . 11
4.2 Technical reviews . 13
4.3 Status reviews . 13
4.4 Overview of the dependability review method . 14
4.4.1 Overview . 14
4.4.2 Identifying stakeholders . 14
4.4.3 Identifying what the requirements are . 15
4.4.4 Capturing information on actual performance . 15
4.4.5 Assessing the gap between requirements and actual performance . 15
4.4.6 Identifying risks and areas of concern . 15
4.4.7 Recommending actions . 16
4.5 Planning for and timing of dependability reviews . 16
4.6 Levels of dependability reviews . 17
4.6.1 Overview . 17
4.6.2 Team reviews . 18
4.6.3 Project reviews . 18
4.6.4 Status reviews . 19
5 Dependability review activities during the life cycle . 19
5.1 General . 19
5.2 Concept stage . 20
5.3 Development stage . 20
5.3.1 Overview . 20
5.3.2 Design reviews . 21
5.4 Realization stage . 22
5.5 Utilization stage . 23
5.6 Enhancement stage . 23
5.7 Retirement stage . 24
6 Implementing the dependability review process . 24
6.1 General . 24
6.2 Planning of the review . 24
6.3 Selection of the review team . 25
6.4 Preparation of the input package . 25
6.5 Meeting notification and agenda . 25
6.6 Conducting a review meeting . 26
6.6.1 General . 26
6.6.2 Meeting protocol . 26
6.6.3 Action points . 27
6.6.4 Recommendations . 27

6.6.5 Rejected action points and recommendations . 27
6.6.6 Meeting conclusion . 27
6.7 Preparing and distributing review minutes . 27
6.7.1 General . 27
6.7.2 Minutes. 28
6.8 Actions and recommendations from a review . 28
6.9 Follow-up and completion of action points and recommendations . 29
Annex A (informative) Examples of an input package for a review . 30
A.1 Concept stage . 30
A.2 Development stage . 30
A.3 Realization stage . 30
A.4 Utilization stage . 31
A.5 Enhancement stage . 31
A.6 Retirement stage . 32
Annex B (informative) Examples of objectives for dependability reviews during the life

cycle . 33
B.1 General . 33
B.2 Concept stage . 33
B.3 Development stage . 33
B.3.1 Conceptual design review . 33
B.3.2 Detail design review . 33
B.3.3 Final design review . 34
B.4 Realization stage . 34
B.5 Utilization stage . 35
B.5.1 Operation . 35
B.5.2 Maintenance . 35
B.6 Enhancement stage . 35
B.7 Retirement stage . 36
Annex C (informative) Considerations during dependability reviews through the life
cycle . 37
C.1 General . 37
C.2 Examples of dependability review considerations in the concept stage . 37
C.3 Examples of dependability review considerations in the development stage . 38
C.4 Examples of dependability review considerations in the realization stage . 39
C.5 Examples of dependability review considerations in the utilization stage . 40
C.6 Examples of dependability review considerations in the enhancement stage . 41
C.7 Examples of dependability review considerations in the retirement stage . 42
Annex D (informative) Functions and responsibilities of some key persons for a
technical review . 43
D.1 General . 43
D.2 Chair . 43
D.3 Secretary . 44
D.4 Relevant specialists . 44
D.5 Project or team manager and members . 45
D.6 Customers and users . 45
Annex E (informative) Dependability topics for a review . 46
E.1 General . 46
E.2 Reliability . 46
E.3 Maintainability . 46

– 4 – IEC 62960:2020  IEC 2020
E.4 Maintenance . 47
E.5 Maintenance support. 47
E.6 Availability . 47
E.7 Quality assurance . 48
E.8 Environmental effects . 49
E.9 Product safety . 50
E.10 Human factors . 50
E.11 Legal matters . 51
E.12 Durability . 52
E.13 Security . 52
E.14 Property damage . 52
E.15 Accountability . 53
Bibliography . 54

Figure 1 – Flow of reviews during a life cycle stage . 18
Figure 2 – Implementing the review process . 24

INTERNATIONAL ELECTROTECHNICAL COMMISSION
____________
DEPENDABILITY REVIEWS DURING THE LIFE CYCLE

FOREWORD
1) The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising
all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote international
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rights. IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.
International Standard IEC 62960 has been prepared by IEC technical committee 56:
Dependability.
The text of this International Standard is based on the following documents:
FDIS Report on voting
56/1874/FDIS 56/1878/RVD
Full information on the voting for the approval of this International Standard can be found in the
report on voting indicated in the above table.
This document has been drafted in accordance with the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2.

– 6 – IEC 62960:2020  IEC 2020
The committee has decided that the contents of this document will remain unchanged until the
stability date indicated on the IEC website under "http://webstore.iec.ch" in the data related to
the specific document. At this date, the document will be
• reconfirmed,
• withdrawn,
• replaced by a revised edition, or
• amended.
IMPORTANT – The 'colour inside' logo on the cover page of this publication indicates
that it contains colours which are considered to be useful for the correct understanding
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INTRODUCTION
Dependability is the ability to perform as and when required. Dependability has many attributes
but is usually characterized in terms of reliability, maintainability, supportability (including
maintenance and support) and availability. These attributes are subject to change over the life
cycle and can benefit from regular review.
Benefits of dependability review throughout the life cycle include:
– discovering and mitigating or eliminating weaknesses in the early life cycle stages before
they manifest as dependability problems in later stages;
– identifying and treating problems which might occur later in the life cycle, and providing
feedback to prevent their recurrence and to adapt systems to changes in environment and
other factors;
– providing assurance of dependability and of the systems and processes that aim to achieve
dependability;
– continually improving the dependability of the system in order to maintain or improve a
commercial advantage.
Systems are becoming increasingly complex and constantly changing. This raises specific
problems that need attention. Systems are changing in the following ways. A system is often
developed, and/or utilized, in organizations across national borders and industry sectors.
Changes such as legislation affecting one country or industry sector may necessitate a change
to the system. System requirements can also change over time as technology, environmental
conditions and societal demands change.
Dependability reviews are mainly used for large systems, but even small products such as
mobile phones are complicated systems that may require dependability reviews.
Organizations involved in different parts of the life cycle might not be able to share a common
purpose. For example, an engineering design company during the development and realization
stages may not be able to fully anticipate the needs of stakeholders at the utilization stage.
More generally, it is becoming increasingly difficult to predict at some earlier stage potential
dependability problems that can occur at a later life cycle stage. Dependability reviews carried
out at appropriate points during the life cycle can assist in addressing all of the above issues.
This document provides guidance on dependability reviews as part of an organization’s
technical review processes. It provides a coherent set of principles for dependability reviews
which could be useful in addition to, and in support of, general monitoring and dependability
assurance carried out by various organizations at different life cycle stages.
In many cases dependability aspects of a system are covered in other reviews such as design
reviews or manufacturability reviews. In these cases, the procedures given in this document
can be applied. The informative annexes can be used as checklists to cover all technical
relevant aspects.
Dependability reviews described in this document are a key part of a dependability management
system as described in IEC 60300-1.

– 8 – IEC 62960:2020  IEC 2020
DEPENDABILITY REVIEWS DURING THE LIFE CYCLE

1 Scope
This document provides guidance on a review methodology for dependability from a technical
perspective that is applicable at all stages of a system life cycle. Its application can improve
the dependability of a system throughout its life cycle by triggering appropriate actions at
appropriate times to address potential dependability problems.
It provides guidance for developers, manufacturers, users and third-party independent
reviewers such as consulting organizations.
This document describes a dependability review methodology focusing on:
– coherence of review activities across life cycle stages and their impact on dependability;
– stakeholder identification and how this affects dependability review activities;
– the relationships between different types of reviews;
– procedures for effective dependability reviews;
– examples of dependability review activities.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content
constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies.
For undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any
amendments) applies.
IEC 60050-192, International electrotechnical vocabulary – Part 192: Dependability
(available at http://www.electropedia.org)
3 Terms and definitions
3.1 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in IEC 60050-192 and the
following apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following
addresses:
• IEC Electropedia: available at http://www.electropedia.org/
• ISO Online browsing platform: available at http://www.iso.org/obp
3.1.1
dependability management
coordinated activities to direct and control an organization with regard to dependability
Note 1 to entry: Dependability management is part of an organization’s overall management.
[SOURCE: IEC 60300-1:2014, 3.1.4]

3.1.2
dependability plan
set of scheduled activities that when carried out are aimed to achieve dependability objectives
and targets for an item
[SOURCE: IEC 60300-1:2014, 3.1.6, modified – "that when carried out are aimed" added.]
3.1.3
dependability review
review which focuses on the dependability aspects of an item, system or process being
reviewed
Note 1 to entry: A dependability review can be a standalone review or a part of a review covering wider aspects.
3.1.4
design review
planned and documented review of an existing or proposed design
Note 1 to entry: Objectives include evaluation of the design’s capability to fulfil the specified requirements,
identification for any actual or potential deficiencies, proposing enhancements.
Note 2 to entry: A design review by itself is not sufficient to ensure proper design.
Note 3 to entry: The design can be for a product or process.
Note 4 to entry: The design review can be achieved by means of a meeting or other documented process.
3.1.5
gap analysis
method to compare what is achieved with what is required in order to identify differences and
make improvements
3.1.6
item
subject being considered
Note 1 to entry: The item may be an individual part, component, device, functional unit, equipment, subsystem, or
system.
Note 2 to entry: The item may consist of hardware, software, people or any combination thereof.
Note 3 to entry: The item often comprises elements that may each be individually considered.
[SOURCE: IEC 60050-192:2015, 192-01-01, modified – Note 3 modified by omission of internal
references and Notes 4 and 5 deleted.]
3.1.7
life cycle
series of identifiable stages through which an item goes, from its conception to disposal
EXAMPLE A typical system life cycle consists of: concept and definition; design and development; construction,
installation and commissioning; operation and maintenance; mid-life upgrading, or life extension and
decommissioning and disposal.
Note 1 to entry: The stages identified will vary with the application.
[SOURCE: IEC 60050-192:2015, 192-01-09]
3.1.8
management
coordinated activities to direct and control an organization

– 10 – IEC 62960:2020  IEC 2020
Note 1 to entry: Management can include establishing policies and objectives and processes to achieve these
objectives.
Note 2 to entry: The word "management" sometimes refers to people, i.e. a person or group of people with authority
and responsibility for the conduct and control of an organization. When "management" is used in this sense, it should
always be used with some form of qualifier to avoid confusion with the concept of "management" as a set of activities
defined above. For example, "management shall…" is deprecated whereas "top management shall…" is acceptable.
Otherwise different words should be adopted to convey the concept when related to people, e.g. managerial or
managers.
[SOURCE: ISO 9000:2015, 3.3.3]
3.1.9
project
unique process, consisting of a set of coordinated and controlled activities with start and finish
dates, undertaken to achieve an objective conforming to specific requirements, including the
constraints of time, cost and resources
Note 1 to entry: The project's organization is normally temporary and established for the lifetime of the project.
Note 2 to entry: The complexity of the interactions among project activities is not necessarily related to the project
size.
[SOURCE: ISO 9000:2015, 3.4.2, modified – Notes 1 to 3 deleted.]
3.1.10
project milestone
specific and predetermined point in a project at which certain deliverables are expected to have
been attained, or at which a measurable amount of progress is to be expected
3.1.11
project review
review of the project output
3.1.12
review
activity undertaken to determine the suitability, adequacy and effectiveness of the subject
matter to achieve established objectives
[SOURCE: ISO Guide 73:2009, 3.8.2.2, modified – Note deleted.]
3.1.13
stakeholder
person or organization that can affect, be affected by, or perceive themselves to be affected by
a decision or activity
Note 1 to entry: This definition is more general than that given in IEC/ISO/IEEE 15288:2015.
[SOURCE: IEC 60300-1:2014, 3.1.5, modified – Note 1 added.]
3.1.14
status review
review of the overall project status with respect to established objectives
Note 1 to entry: The status review consists of a technical part where status information is gathered and structured
and a management part where the status is determined and appropriate decisions are taken.
3.1.15
system
set of interrelated items that collectively fulfil a requirement
Note 1 to entry: A system is considered to have a defined real or abstract boundary.

Note 2 to entry: External resources (from outside the system boundary) may be required for the system to operate.
Note 3 to entry: A system structure may be hierarchical, e.g. system, subsystem, component, etc.
Note 4 to entry: Conditions of use and maintenance should be expressed or implied within the requirement.
[SOURCE: IEC 60050-192:2015, 192-01-03]
3.1.16
team
two or more persons working together with a set of complementary skills required to complete
a task
Note 1 to entry: A member of the team is appointed as the team leader.
Note 2 to entry: The team can include persons-in-training.
3.1.17
team review
review of the team output
EXAMPLE Mechanical team, electronic team or software team as input to the technical part of the status review.
3.1.18
technical review
review of technical aspects of a process or a work product by a team of technically-qualified
personnel that examines the suitability of the work product for its intended use and identifies
risks and discrepancies from specifications and standards
Note 1 to entry: Subjects whose technical aspects may be reviewed include application of new technology, product
line diversification, make-buy decisions, timeline for new product introduction and review of the suitability/adequacy
of the technical specification.
[SOURCE: ISO/IEC 20246:2017, 3.18, modified – "formal peer review" replaced with "review of
technical aspects of a process", "risks" added and Note 1 replaced.]
3.2 Abbreviated terms
COTS commercial-off-the-shelf
FMEA modes and effects analysis
FTA fault tree analysis
MMH maintenance man-hours
MTBF mean operating time between failures
MTTF mean time to first failure
MTTR mean time to restoration
PoF physics of failure
RTM requirements traceability matrix
4 Introducing dependability reviews
4.1 General
Dependability reviews are key activities in the dependability plan. The persons in charge of
dependability reviews have the responsibility for ensuring that dependability reviews are carried
out during the life cycle.
Reviews involve investigating the current situation in order to compare it with what is expected
or required. Reviews identify discrepancies, risks and potential problems, analyse them and
recommend improvements.
– 12 – IEC 62960:2020  IEC 2020
Dependability reviews comprise a coherent set of reviews for different aspects of dependability.
These reviews are performed repeatedly throughout the life cycle, continually providing follow-
up actions and assessment of their effectiveness.
Dependability reviews can be performed from various perspectives, such as:
– the dependability attributes of an item including reliability, maintainability, supportability and
availability;
– other time related characteristics of an item such as durability and recoverability;
– dependability related functions such as safety and security;
– cost efficiency, including both life cycle cost and the short term cost;
– activities carried out to achieve or assess dependability outcomes;
– effectiveness of dependability processes;
– accountability of, and to, various stakeholders for potential failures;
– adaptation to changes in requirements, environments, objectives and/or purpose of the
system.
A dependability review provides assurance that dependability is achieved throughout the life
cycle either by demonstrating that requirements are met or by identifying problems and making
improvements. A dependability review can be used to provide evidence that a dependability
claim is satisfied as part of a dependability case (IEC 62741 [3] gives guidance on the content
of a dependability case and establishes general principles for its preparation).
Systematic dependability reviews across the system life cycle enable agile corrective
redirection of effort with less waste. This is particularly beneficial given the current trends for
increasing system complexity, tightening development time and prolonged operational life.
Some environments or conditions for the trends include:
– ubiquitous network connection to any range of systems controlled by others;
– frequent changes in the system's context such as user expectation and competitions in the
market;
– inability to discard the old and start anew due to, for example cost consideration and
preferences for "circular economy".
Dependability reviews help identify, predict and correct problems as they arise in the system
life cycle while they are small enough to be addressed.
There are various types of dependability reviews. The type of dependability review performed
at a life cycle stage should be appropriate to that life cycle stage. This is best managed and
documented through the dependability plan. Dependability review activities during the life cycle
are described in Clause 5.
A review can be internal where the review team involves people closely involved with the subject
under review or it can be external where the review team involves only independent people. In
this case the team which is the subject of the review provides evidence to the external review
team.
Management problems such as accountability and changes in business objectives have
consequences for dependability. Such problems can therefore form part of a dependability
review. In this case both technical experts and managers can be involved.
____________
Numbers in square brackets refer to the Bibliography.

Dependability reviews can be categorized as technical reviews or management reviews. The
principles of this document can be applied equally to all types of review. However, this
document focuses on technical reviews. The management part of reviews in the status review
is not covered. Both technical reviews and management reviews take place at each stage of
the life cycle, often as an integral part of other reviews rather than as a standalone activity.
Subclauses 4.2 and 4.3 describe technical reviews and status reviews.
4.2 Technical reviews
Technical reviews identify and analyse potential problems and opportunities, and recommend
actions for improvement. They also provide assurance that processes are operating effectively
and requirements are met.
Technical reviews can include design reviews, operation reviews, maintenance reviews, risk
reviews or reviews of other technical aspects of an item or process. They may focus on
dependability or dependability may be considered as part of a wider performance review.
Technical reviews of dependability can involve:
– reviews of the achieved or predicted dependability of an item where the objective is to
improve dependability of the item itself by evaluating dependability measures and by
exploring opportunities for improvement;
– reviews of the processes and activities planned to achieve dependability in order to learn
lessons and improve future processes and activities.
Participants should have a technical understanding of the system under review and of the
reliability, maintenance and supportability disciplines.
The participants should include experts who are independent from the design of the system and
have necessary skills to analyse how items, systems and processes could fail. Participation of
such experts is most important for securing independence and quality of the review. Participants
might include, for example, quality professionals, reliability professionals, ergonomics
professionals, safety analysts and test personnel.
Management should normally not participate in a technical review. The customer or user of the
system or process may participate in a technical review.
Each technical review should designate a chair of the meeting (the facilitator), who can assign
a secretary to assist the review.
4.3 Status reviews
The purpose of a status review is to provide the management group, and sometimes the
customer, with information about how a project is progressing, and in some cases, to authorize
the continuation of a project to the next phase in the project plan. Some status reviews are held
at project milestones and are referred to as "milestone reviews". Some milestone reviews also
include a decision on whether, or not the project can proceed and may be referred to as "gate
reviews". In some cases a stage payment is dependent on the result of the status review.
A status review of dependability starts with a phase where information and evidence related to
dependability are collected and structured. The structured information is then presented to
management for review and decisions.
The team for a status review should include people that have the authority to devote resources
to the project and remove obstacles. The participants in the technical part of the status review
are typically the chair, the secretary, the project leaders and the team leaders for the different
project teams. Once consensus on the status of the technical problems has been reached, the
status review can proceed to the management phase, where usually the programme manager,
the management and, possibly, the customer participate. Care should be taken so that serious
problems reported by the team leaders in the project review are not presented as tasks for the
next project phase without reporting their potential impact if left unsolved.

– 14 – IEC 62960:2020  IEC 2020
4.4 Overview of the dependability review method
4.4.1 Overview
Dependability can be reviewed as a separate issue or as part of other reviews. In either case
the dependability review should involve the following stages:
– identifying stakeholders;
– identifying what the requirements are;
– capturing information on actual performance;
– assessing the gap between requirements and actual performance;
– identifying risks and areas of concern;
– recommending actions.
If changes are introduced, their effectiveness should be checked, and a judgment should be
made about whether any additional action or actions are required.
4.4.2 Identifying stakeholders
It is important for persons or organizations developing and operating systems to clearly
recognize who their stakeholders are, since their ultimate aim is to satisfy the needs of these
stakeholders. Stakeholders should therefore be identified and means of communication with
them established. For some systems, it is relatively easy to identify stakeholders and they do
not change through the lifecycle. For other systems, it may be difficult to identify all stakeholders
at the outset and to fully determi
...