ISO/IEC/IEEE 12207:2017还提供了可用于定义、控制和改进组织或项目内的软件生命周期过程的过程。 本文件的过程、活动和任务也可应用于包含软件的系统的采购过程中，单独或与ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288:2015，系统和软件工程？系统生命周期过程。 在本文档和ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288的上下文中，存在一系列人造系统，从很少使用或不使用软件的系统到主要关注软件的系统。很少遇到没有软件的复杂系统，而所有软件系统都需要物理系统组件（硬件）才能运行，要么作为软件系统的一部分-或作为支持系统或基础设施。因此，选择是将本文档应用于软件生命周期过程，还是ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288:2015，系统和软件工程？系统生命周期过程取决于感兴趣的系统。两个文档中的过程具有相同的过程目的和过程结果，但分别执行软件工程或系统工程的活动和任务不同。

ISO/IEC/IEEE 12207:2017 also provides processes that can be employed for defining, controlling, and improving software life cycle processes within an organization or a project. The processes, activities, and tasks of this document can also be applied during the acquisition of a system that contains software, either alone or in conjunction with ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288:2015, Systems and software engineering?System life cycle processes. In the context of this document and ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288, there is a continuum of human-made systems from those that use little or no software to those in which software is the primary interest. It is rare to encounter a complex system without software, and all software systems require physical system components (hardware) to operate, either as part of the software system-of-interest or as an enabling system or infrastructure. Thus, the choice of whether to apply this document for the software life cycle processes, or ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288:2015, Systems and software engineering?System life cycle processes, depends on the system-of-interest. Processes in both documents have the same process purpose and process outcomes, but differ in activities and tasks to perform software engineering or systems engineering, respectively.