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Four processes and two frames
A lead engineer does not read 40 practices in a line. They start with the process they are working in. The four processes are the ones the public abstract names; scope and transition are the frames around them.
The public record puts the guide inside the Intermediate profile for VSEs of up to 25 people, developing non-critical systems, often with more than one project and more than one team. Get the scope right before you build a file, because a firm outside the intended audience needs a tailoring decision, not a register.
Does the Intermediate profile reach this firm at all?
Read the processThe Intermediate profile adds a business management process. In a firm of 25 people the business questions are resource questions: which work to take, who is free, what the templates are and who owns them.
Can the firm run more than one project without the business falling between them?
Read the processProject management is the spine of the profile. The buyer needs a plan that survives a change, a progress reading that is not a status meeting, and a closure that captures the artefacts the next project needs.
Is every project planned, tracked and closed on evidence, not on memory?
Read the processSystem Definition and Realisation is where most of the evidence sits. Requirements, architecture, allocation, realisation, integration, verification, validation, configuration and delivery each leave a different artefact.
Can the team show how the system was defined, built, verified and delivered?
Read the processThe Intermediate profile adds acquisition management. A VSE that buys a subsystem or a service is still accountable for the delivered system, so the acquisition leaves its own evidence.
When the firm buys part of the system, does it control what it buys?
Read the processThe publication replaces a 2019 Technical Report. The useful work is not reading the new text when it appears; it is deciding now what in the firm's own process moves, and recording that decision so the file can be re-baselined.
What changes in our own process, and who owns the change?
Read the processMost firms start with project management because it is the process they already feel. The order that survives an assessment is: settle the scope, then the business capacity, then the project record, then the system evidence, then the acquisition, then the transition. The four processes are not sequential in the standard; they run at the same time on a real project.
If you have one week, do scope and project management. If you have a quarter, do all six groups. If a customer assessment is due, do the evidence index first, because the assessor will start there whatever else is ready.
| Ref | Practice | Process | Basis | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SC-01 | Who the profile is for | Scope and applicability | public-record | 3 |
| SC-02 | The non-critical systems limit | Scope and applicability | public-record | 3 |
| SC-03 | More than one project and more than one work team | Scope and applicability | public-record | 3 |
| SC-04 | Where the Intermediate profile sits | Scope and applicability | public-record | 3 |
| SC-05 | What the guide adds to the Basic profile | Scope and applicability | public-record | 3 |
| SC-06 | What the guide does not do | Scope and applicability | public-record | 3 |
| BM-01 | State the business the firm is in | Business Management | series-structure | 3 |
| BM-02 | Set the objectives the projects must serve | Business Management | our-reading | 3 |
| BM-03 | Own the process assets and the tailoring rule | Business Management | series-structure | 3 |
| BM-04 | Allocate people across parallel projects | Business Management | public-record | 3 |
| BM-05 | Review business performance and act | Business Management | our-reading | 3 |
| BM-06 | Decide which work to take and which to decline | Business Management | our-reading | 3 |
| PM-01 | Start the project with an approved plan | Project Management | series-structure | 3 |
| PM-02 | Define scope, deliverables and acceptance criteria | Project Management | series-structure | 3 |
| PM-03 | Estimate effort, cost and schedule | Project Management | our-reading | 3 |
| PM-04 | Build the work breakdown and the schedule | Project Management | series-structure | 3 |
| PM-05 | Assign roles and responsibilities | Project Management | public-record | 3 |
| PM-06 | Manage risks, issues and changes | Project Management | our-reading | 3 |
| PM-07 | Monitor progress and take corrective action | Project Management | series-structure | 3 |
| PM-08 | Close the project and capture lessons | Project Management | series-structure | 3 |
| SR-01 | Establish the system requirements baseline | System Definition and Realisation | series-structure | 3 |
| SR-02 | Define the system architecture | System Definition and Realisation | series-structure | 3 |
| SR-03 | Allocate requirements to elements | System Definition and Realisation | series-structure | 3 |
| SR-04 | Design and realise the elements | System Definition and Realisation | series-structure | 3 |
| SR-05 | Integrate and verify the system | System Definition and Realisation | series-structure | 3 |
| SR-06 | Validate against the acquirer's needs | System Definition and Realisation | public-record | 3 |
| SR-07 | Manage configuration and change | System Definition and Realisation | series-structure | 3 |
| SR-08 | Control externally supplied elements | System Definition and Realisation | series-structure | 3 |
| SR-09 | Deliver the system and the evidence pack | System Definition and Realisation | series-structure | 3 |
| AC-01 | Decide to acquire rather than build | Acquisition Management | public-record | 3 |
| AC-02 | Select the supplier on stated criteria | Acquisition Management | series-structure | 3 |
| AC-03 | Agree the technical content of the contract | Acquisition Management | our-reading | 3 |
| AC-04 | Monitor the supplier and accept deliverables | Acquisition Management | series-structure | 3 |
| AC-05 | Close the acquisition and integrate the result | Acquisition Management | our-reading | 3 |
| TR-01 | Record the transition decision | Transition and evidence | our-reading | 3 |
| TR-02 | Compare current practice with the Intermediate profile | Transition and evidence | our-reading | 3 |
| TR-03 | Re-baseline work products and templates | Transition and evidence | our-reading | 3 |
| TR-04 | Retrain the roles that change | Transition and evidence | our-reading | 3 |
| TR-05 | Set the review and re-baseline trigger | Transition and evidence | our-reading | 3 |
| TR-06 | Keep the evidence file assessable | Transition and evidence | our-reading | 3 |
The 40-practice register, the 120-item evidence index, the dated plan and the board brief, as PDF, CSV and XLSX. Five labelled rows are free on the specimen page.