ISO/IEC 24773-2:2024 PDF

Overview

ISO/IEC 24773-2:2024 - "Software and systems engineering - Certification of software and systems engineering professionals - Part 2" provides guidance for certification and qualification bodies on how to describe knowledge, skills, and competencies within certification schemes based on ISO/IEC 24773-1. It complements the general requirements in Part 1 and helps certification scheme owners produce clear, objective, and maintainable scheme descriptions for professionals in software and systems engineering.

Key topics

This guidance document focuses on three core scheme elements and related governance:

• Body of Knowledge (BOK)

  • Scope and depth of topics, content hierarchy and KA (knowledge areas) structure
  • Professional orientation, orthogonality of topics, treatment of related disciplines
  • Distinction between practical knowledge and theory, bibliographies, validation and maintenance of the BOK

• Skills

  • Relationship of skills to knowledge and competencies
  • How skills are acquired and developed, distinction from personal attributes
  • Definition of performance levels, grouping of specific skills, and maintenance of skill descriptions

• Competencies

  • Objectives for defining competencies and associating proficiency levels
  • Separation from organizational job titles/roles and mapping to lower-level competencies and work products
  • Use of external competency models, generic vs. domain-specific competencies, and updating competency definitions

• Assessment and Professionalism

  • Guidance on assessment of knowledge, skills and competencies (including experience evidence)
  • Recommendations for codes of ethics, conduct and ethical behaviour
  • Annex A: discussion of professional licensure and harmonization with regulatory requirements

Practical applications and users

ISO/IEC 24773-2:2024 is intended for:

• Certification/qualification bodies designing or revising certification schemes in software and systems engineering
• Accreditors and evaluators assessing scheme conformity with ISO/IEC 24773 series and ISO/IEC 17024
• Employers, HR teams, and hiring managers seeking transparent competence descriptions for recruitment and professional development
• Candidates and certificants who need clear expectations of BOK, skill performance, and competency proficiency

Benefits include improved comparability of schemes, clearer candidate expectations, and more objective assessment criteria for professional certification.

Related standards

• ISO/IEC 24773-1:2019 - General requirements and terminology for the series
• ISO/IEC 24773-3 - Systems engineering certification (specific requirements)
• ISO/IEC 24773-4 - Software engineering certification (specific requirements)
• ISO/IEC 17024 - General requirements for bodies operating certification of persons

Using ISO/IEC 24773-2 helps organizations produce robust, transparent certification schemes that align BOK, skills, and competencies with recognized international guidance.