How do you verify and validate system requirements in the detailed phase?

1 Review and inspection

One of the simplest and cheapest ways to verify and validate system requirements is to conduct review and inspection sessions with the relevant stakeholders, such as customers, users, developers, testers, and managers. In these sessions, you can present and discuss the requirements documents, models, diagrams, and specifications, and identify any errors, inconsistencies, ambiguities, or gaps. You can also solicit feedback and suggestions to improve the clarity, completeness, and correctness of your requirements.

2 Analysis and simulation

Another way to verify and validate system requirements is to perform analysis and simulation using mathematical, logical, or statistical tools and models. These tools and models can help you evaluate the performance, reliability, safety, and efficiency of your system under different scenarios and conditions. You can also use them to compare alternative solutions, optimize design parameters, and identify potential risks and trade-offs. Analysis and simulation can provide you with quantitative and qualitative data to support your decision-making and verification.

3 Prototyping and demonstration

A more interactive and visual way to verify and validate system requirements is to create and use prototypes and demonstrations of your system or its components. Prototypes and demonstrations can help you test the functionality, usability, and feasibility of your system in a realistic or simulated environment. They can also help you communicate and validate your design concepts and assumptions with the stakeholders, and collect their feedback and approval. Prototyping and demonstration can be done at different levels of fidelity and complexity, depending on your goals and resources.

4 Testing and evaluation

The most rigorous and comprehensive way to verify and validate system requirements is to conduct testing and evaluation activities throughout the system development lifecycle. Testing and evaluation can help you verify that your system meets the specified requirements, and validate that your system satisfies the stakeholder needs and expectations. Testing and evaluation can involve different types of tests, such as unit, integration, system, acceptance, and operational tests, as well as different criteria, such as functionality, performance, reliability, usability, and security. Testing and evaluation can also generate valuable data and feedback to improve your system quality and performance.

Verifying and validating system requirements in the detailed phase is essential for ensuring that your system is fit for purpose, meets the stakeholder requirements, and complies with the standards and regulations. By applying these methods and techniques, you can increase your confidence and credibility in your system design, and reduce the risks and costs of errors and failures.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?