ISO/IEC 5338:2023

INTERNATIONAL ISO/IEC
STANDARD 5338
First edition
2023-12
Information technology — Artificial
intelligence — AI system life cycle
processes
Technologies de l'information — Intelligence artificielle — Processus
de cycle de vie des systèmes d'IA
Reference number
© ISO/IEC 2023
© ISO/IEC 2023
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication may
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© ISO/IEC 2023 – All rights reserved

Contents Page
Foreword .v
Introduction . vi
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 Abbreviated terms . 2
5 Key concepts . 2
5.1 General . 2
5.2 AI system concepts . 4
5.3 AI system life cycle model . 4
5.4 Process concepts . 7
5.4.1 Criteria for processes . 7
5.4.2 Description of processes . 7
5.4.3 Conformance . 8
6 AI System life cycle processes .8
6.1 Agreement processes . 8
6.1.1 Acquisition process . 8
6.1.2 Supply process . 8
6.2 Organizational project-enabling processes . 9
6.2.1 Life cycle model management process . 9
6.2.2 Infrastructure management process . 9
6.2.3 Portfolio management process . 9
6.2.4 Human resource management process . 10
6.2.5 Quality management process . 10
6.2.6 Knowledge management process . 11
6.3 Technical management processes . 11
6.3.1 Project planning process . . 11
6.3.2 Project assessment and control process .12
6.3.3 Decision management process. 13
6.3.4 Risk management process . 13
6.3.5 Configuration management process . 15
6.3.6 Information management process . 16
6.3.7 Measurement process . 16
6.3.8 Quality assurance process . 16
6.4 Technical processes . . 17
6.4.1 Business or mission analysis process . 17
6.4.2 Stakeholder needs and requirements definition process . 18
6.4.3 System requirements definition process. 19
6.4.4 System architecture definition process . 20
6.4.5 Design definition process . 20
6.4.6 System analysis process . 20
6.4.7 Knowledge acquisition process . 20
6.4.8 AI data engineering process . 21
6.4.9 Implementation process . 24
6.4.10 Integration process . 26
6.4.11 Verification process . 26
6.4.12 Transition process . 27
6.4.13 Validation process .28
6.4.14 Continuous validation process .29
6.4.15 Operation process .30
6.4.16 Maintenance process . 31
6.4.17 Disposal process . 33
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© ISO/IEC 2023 – All rights reserved

Annex A (informative) Observations based on use cases in ISO/IEC TR 24030 .34
Bibliography .38
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© ISO/IEC 2023 – All rights reserved

Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical
Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are
members of ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical
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accordance with the editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www.iso.org/directives or
www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs).
ISO and IEC draw attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the
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This document was prepared by Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology,
Subcommittee SC 42, Artificial intelligence.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards
body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found at www.iso.org/members.html and
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© ISO/IEC 2023 – All rights reserved

Introduction
Artificial intelligence (AI) systems in the fields of computer vision and image recognition, natural
language processing, fraud detection, automated vehicles, predictive maintenance and planning have
achieved remarkable successes. To build and maintain an AI system, it is an efficient approach to extend
the life cycle processes for a traditional software system to include AI-specific life cycle characteristics.
An example of such a specific characteristic of an AI system life cycle is where a system employs
machine learning (ML) using training data and it becomes necessary to retrain the ML model using new
training data that is more representative of current production data.
ISO/IEC/IEEE 12207 describes software life cycle processes and ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 describes system
life cycle processes. While these life cycle processes are broadly applicable to AI systems, they require
the introduction of new processes and the modification of existing processes to accommodate the
characteristics of AI systems. This document extends the current generic life cycle process International
Standards to make them applicable for AI systems so that the AI system life c
...