Verification & Validation

Any engineered product can be checked in one of two ways:

check vs. the specified functions – Validation “doing the right thing”

check vs. the internal workings – Verification “doing the thing right”

Static and dynamic Verification & Validation

1. Static V&V –

Software inspections – concerned with analysis of the static system representation, in order to discover problems.

May be supplemented by tool-based document and code analysis.

2. Dynamic V&V

Software testing – concerned with exercising and observing product behavior.

The system is executed with test data and its operational behaviour is observed.

In Simple Words –

o Verification is the process of doing reviews and walk-through and conducting interviews.

o Validation is the process of doing actual testing in the source code.

Verification makes sure that the product is designed to deliver all functionality to the customer; it includes reviews and meetings to evaluate documents, plans, code, requirements and specifications; this can be done with checklists, walkthroughs, inspection meetings, etc

Validation ensures that functionality, as defined in requirements, is the intended behaviour of the product; validation typically involves actual testing and takes place after verifications are completed.