The Concept of Operations template (CONOPs) describes the purpose of a proposed system, the environment in which it will be operated, how it will be used, roles and responsibilities of users, resources required for its implementation, and other information project stakeholders will need to fund the proposed system.
Use this template to:
- Assist stakeholders in determining if the proposed system should be developed
- Serve as the basis for the Functional Requirements Document
- Communicate the user’s expectations to buyers and developers
- Describe the proposed system, identify user classes, modes of operation, and clarify conflicting user requirements
- Build consensus among user groups, buyer organizations, and/or among developers.
Concept of Operations: Table of Contents
1 Introduction
1.1 Document overview
1.2 Background
1.3 Identification
1.4 Goals, objectives & rationale
1.5 Points of contact
2 Current System
2.1 Background
2.2 Scope
2.3 Policies and Constraints
2.4 Description of current system
2.5 Modes of Operation
2.6 Users classes & other stakeholders
2.7 Support Environment
3 Justification
3.1 Justification for change
3.2 Description of required changes
3.3 Priorities among the changes
3.4 Changes considered but not included
3.5 Assumptions
3.6 Constraints
4 Proposed System
4.1 Background, objectives, and scope
4.2 Operational policies and constraints
4.3 Description of the new system
4.4 User classes / categories of users
4.5 Modes of operation
4.6 Deployment and support environment
4.7 Non-functional requirements
4.8 Requirements traceability
5 Use Cases & Operation Scenarios
5.1 Process descriptions
5.2 Events
5.3 Use Case
6 Impacts
6.1 Risks
6.2 Issues
6.3 Operational impacts
6.4 Organizational impacts
6.5 Impacts during development
7 Analysis of the Proposed System
7.1 Improvements
7.2 Disadvantages & limitations
7.3 Alternatives