System Operational Concept (OpsCon) Template

System Operational Concept (OpsCon): [System name]

System operational concept (OpsCon) for one proposed system: who will operate and support it, in which environment, in which modes, and through which scenarios, told from the users' point of view. It is the system-level information item that ISO/IEC/IEEE 29148:2018, Requirements engineering, distinguishes from the organisation-level concept of operations (ConOps). Use requirements/conops for the organisation level and this template when one system needs its own operational concept as the input to stakeholder requirements. Replace every [bracketed] value and every row marked Example.

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Revision history

Contents

1. Scope
2. References
3. Operational environment
4. Users, operators and support roles
5. Operational modes and states
6. Operational scenarios
7. Support concept
8. Operational constraints and expectations
9. Impacts of the system
10. Traceability to requirements and validation
11. Glossary and open issues

1. Scope

1.1 System identification

[System name, short code, version or increment, acquirer, developer, operator and maintainer.]

Example: LeakWatch is a district leak detection system for Kestrelmoor Water (a fictional utility). It combines 1,200 acoustic sensors on the distribution network, a central analytics service and a mobile app for field crews. The control room operates it, the network maintenance team repairs leaks, and an external supplier maintains the sensors.

1.2 System purpose and boundary

[What the system is for, and what is inside and outside its boundary.]

1.3 Relationship to the organisation-level ConOps

[Cite the ConOps (requirements/conops) and say which of its operations this system supports. If there is no ConOps, state the organisation's operational objective in two sentences.]

Example: The Kestrelmoor network ConOps sets the objective of halving the average time leaks run before repair. LeakWatch supports its operations "detect", "locate" and "dispatch"; "repair" remains with the existing work order process.

1.4 Where this document sits

2. References

3. Operational environment

Example: Sensors are installed in chambers below street level, often flooded, with cellular coverage that drops in 4% of chambers. The control room runs 24 hours a day with two operators at night.

4. Users, operators and support roles

5. Operational modes and states

The diagram shows the permitted transitions between the modes in the table above.

6. Operational scenarios

6.1 Scenario OS-01: [Normal operation, for example Leak detected and repaired]

Example: Steps:

1. Sensors in district D14 report a noise pattern consistent with a leak.
2. LeakWatch raises an alert with an estimated location on the control room console.
3. The operator (UC-01) checks recent works and pressure data and confirms the alert.
4. The operator raises a work order; LeakWatch sends the location to the field app.
5. A technician (UC-02) confirms the leak on site and starts the repair.
6. After the repair the technician closes the task; LeakWatch watches the district for 48 hours and clears the alert.

6.2 Scenario OS-02: [Peak, for example Freeze and thaw night]

[Many alerts at once after a cold night. Describe how operators triage, which alerts are grouped, and what the system must not do (for example hide a large burst behind many small leaks).]

6.3 Scenario OS-03: [Degraded, for example Analytics service unavailable]

[The system enters DM-02. Operators fall back to raw sensor alarms and customer reports. Describe what they lose, how long they can work this way, and how they know the system has recovered.]

6.4 Scenario OS-04: [Support, for example Sensor replacement round]

[The supplier's maintainer replaces sensors. Describe scheduling, how the control room knows which sensors are offline on purpose, and how the replaced sensors are checked before use.]

6.5 Scenario summary

7. Support concept

8. Operational constraints and expectations

9. Impacts of the system

10. Traceability to requirements and validation

Keep the full matrix in requirements/traceability-matrix.

11. Glossary and open issues

11.1 Glossary

11.2 Open issues

Standard and licence note

Structure aligned with ISO/IEC/IEEE 29148:2018, Systems and software engineering: Life cycle processes: Requirements engineering (second edition, 2018), which describes the system operational concept (OpsCon) as an information item separate from the organisation-level concept of operations. The section sequence (environment, users, modes, scenarios, support, impacts) follows common systems engineering practice; check the official text for the outline the standard gives. As of October 2026 the 2018 edition is current and a third edition is at Draft International Standard stage, so check the current edition before use. Process names refer to ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288:2023. This template is original text written for this collection and reproduces no text from either standard. Official text: ISO, IEC and IEEE, purchase or licensed access at https://www.iso.org/standard/72089.html (29148) and https://www.iso.org/standard/81702.html (15288). Template licence: MIT.