ISO/IEC 25063:2014 describes the Common Industry Format (CIF) for context of use descriptions and specifies the contents of both high-level and detailed descriptions of the context of use for an existing, intended, implemented or deployed system. A context-of-use description includes information about the users and other stakeholder groups, the characteristics of each user group, the goals of the users, the tasks of the users, and the environment(s) in which the system is used.
The context of use description is applicable to software and hardware systems, products or services (excluding generic products, such as a display screen or keyboard). It is important to gather and analyse information on the current context in order to understand and then describe the context that will apply in the future system. The context of use description provides a collection of data relevant for analysis, specification, design and evaluation of an interactive system from the perspective of the various user groups and other stakeholders.