The concept of operations: The bridge from operational requirements to technical specifications

This paper describes the role of a Concept of Operations (ConOps) document in specification and development of a software‐intensive system. It also describes the process of developing a ConOps, its use and benefits, who should develop it, and when it should be developed. The ConOps described in this paper is compared to other forms of operational concept documents. A detailed outline for ConOps documents is provided in an appendix to the paper.