A concept of operations (abbreviated CONOPS, CONOPs,
or ConOps
) is a document describing the characteristics of a proposed
system
A system is a group of Interaction, interacting or interrelated elements that act according to a set of rules to form a unified whole. A system, surrounded and influenced by its environment (systems), environment, is described by its boundaries, ...
from the viewpoint of an individual who will use that system. Examples include
business requirements specification or
stakeholder requirements specification (StRS). CONOPS is used to communicate the
quantitative and
qualitative
Qualitative descriptions or distinctions are based on some quality or characteristic rather than on some quantity or measured value.
Qualitative may also refer to:
*Qualitative property, a property that can be observed but not measured numericall ...
system characteristics to all
stakeholder
Stakeholder may refer to:
*Stakeholder (corporate), a group, corporate, organization, member, or system that affects or can be affected by an organization's actions
*Project stakeholder, a person, group, or organization with an interest in a proje ...
s.
CONOPS are widely used in the military, governmental services and other fields.
A CONOPS generally evolves from a
concept and is a description of how a set of
capabilities may be employed to achieve desired
objectives or end state.
The first standard was ''1362-1998 - IEEE Guide for Information Technology - System Definition - Concept of Operations (ConOps) Document'' that was superseded by the document ''29148-2011 - ISO/IEC/IEEE International Standard - Systems and software engineering -- Life cycle processes --Requirements engineering''.
Then came the 2012 AIAA revision proposal ''Guide: Guide to the Preparation of Operational Concept Documents (ANSI/AIAA G-043A-2012) (Revision of G-043-1992)'', and today we have ''ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288:2015 Systems and software engineering -- System life cycle processes''.
In the field of joint
military operations, a CONOPS in
DoD terminology is a verbal or graphic statement that clearly and concisely expresses what the joint force commander intends to accomplish and how it will be done using available resources.