Terms related to AI · 3.1.22
life cycle
the path of a system, product, service, project or other made entity from its conception to its retirement
What this term settles
The definition is deliberately narrow. It tells the reader what counts as life cycle and leaves the engineering choices outside the word.
Who it binds
The entry has no shall in it. Its force comes from use: once life cycle appears in a procedure or a supplier term, this is the meaning the reader is entitled to rely on.
What to do in your practice
Take the firm own definition of life cycle, put it beside this one and mark the differences. Each difference is either a deliberate local choice or an inconsistency to fix.
Evidence an auditor or regulator asks for
- A controlled vocabulary entry for life cycle with the citation 3.1.22, an owner and a review date.An auditor can check that the term is controlled rather than assumed.
- An AI system inventory field that records the entry for each system, with its owner.Shows life cycle in use in the artefact the firm relies on, not only in a glossary.
- A policy or procedure sentence that uses the entry in this sense.The policy borrows the word but not the boundary, so a supplier system and an in-house model are treated as the same kind of thing.
Common gaps this page catches
- life cycle is used in the AI vocabulary a policy reaches for first without a written definition, so two teams can mean different things.
- A supplier uses the same word with a different boundary and nobody has recorded the difference.
What to prepare before the amendment lands
Take the next policy revision and replace the loose use of life cycle with the entry and its citation. Record the change in the vocabulary change log.
How to test it here
Take one live artefact rather than a template, find the sentence or field where life cycle is used, and put this page beside it. Record the answer, the artefact and the date, because that record is the evidence and a glossary entry on its own is only an intention.
What this page does not claim
The page does not reproduce the standard, certify the firm or predict the wording the amendment will use; it states life cycle at the claim level "definition" and stops where the public record stops.
Common questions
- What does life cycle mean in ISO 22989?
- the path of a system, product, service, project or other made entity from its conception to its retirement
- What evidence should we keep for 3.1.22?
- A controlled vocabulary entry for life cycle with the citation 3.1.22, an owner and a review date. An AI system inventory field that records the entry for each system, with its owner.
- Is life cycle a requirement?
- No: life cycle is a definition or clause of a terminology standard, and it becomes binding only when a firm writes it into a policy, a contract or a procedure, or when another standard incorporates it.
Related units
Source. ISO/IEC 22989:2022, Clause 3.1.22, Terms and definitions. Open the ISO public entry. Retrieved 21 October 2026.
https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/en/#iso:std:iso-iec:22989:ed-1:v1:en
ISO catalogue record 88145, the amendment status, stage and dates. Catalogue record 74296, the base standard.
Claim level: definition. The definition is in the public preview. This page states it in our own words and does not reproduce the text.
Last updated: 2026-10-21 · Markdown version · Check your vocabulary