Software verification and validation (V&V) are two essential processes in software engineering that aim to ensure the quality and reliability of software products. In this article, you will learn what software V&V are, why they are important, and how they are performed.
Software verification is the process of checking whether the software meets its specifications and requirements. It is used to answer the question: "Are we building the software right?". Software verification can be done at various levels of abstraction, such as design, code, or testing. Common methods of software verification include reviews, static analysis, and testing. Reviews involve a systematic examination of the software artifacts by a group of experts or peers to identify errors or inconsistencies. Static analysis analyzes the software code or structure without executing it to detect potential defects, bugs, or vulnerabilities. Testing involves executing the software or a part of it under specified conditions to observe and evaluate its behavior and outputs.
Although one can construct a code before even thinking on verification and implement such steps beforehand, bringing the longest of verification in the beginning of the design process will drastically increase the ability to verify the software.
Software validation is the process of verifying whether the software meets the expectations and needs of the end-users and stakeholders. It seeks to answer the question: "Are we building the right software?". Software validation can be done at different stages of the software development life cycle, such as planning, analysis, or deployment. Requirements analysis, prototyping, and user acceptance testing are some common methods used for software validation. The former involves eliciting, analyzing, specifying, and validating the functional and non-functional requirements of the software from the perspective of users and stakeholders. Prototyping is creating a simplified or partial version of the software to demonstrate its features, functionality, or usability and collect feedback from users and stakeholders. The latter involves testing the software by intended users or representatives in a realistic or simulated environment to verify that it meets their needs and expectations.
Validation is the final step in the process of creating an perfect software for implementation. Testing team is the most important part of the process for E-to-E testing to check the quality of the product. After all types of health check up, technical testing, functional testing ,stress test etc. Product will be for final ATE level testing . If customer is satisfied and give you confirmation means your validation process is completed.
Software V&V is essential for a variety of reasons, such as ensuring the software meets quality standards, reducing the risk of software failures or errors, improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the software development process, and enhancing user satisfaction and confidence. Specifically, V&V can help guarantee that the software meets customer, regulatory, or industry criteria, decrease the likelihood of software failures or defects that could compromise safety, security, or performance, detect and correct issues earlier in the process to avoid rework and save time and resources, and deliver software that meets or surpasses user expectations.
Good V&V will notably increase software quality and will also increase developers assurance that whatever they code are meeting the requirements. It is like a insurance police that everyone did their best to meet the needed criteria.
Software V&V is a difficult task, as it requires dealing with the complexity and variability of software systems, and the ambiguity and incompleteness of software specifications and requirements. Additionally, there are trade-offs and constraints of software development, such as time, budget, scope, and quality, which may limit the extent and depth of software V&V activities. Moreover, human factors and biases of developers, reviewers, testers, users, and stakeholders may affect the objectivity and accuracy of software V&V judgments and decisions.
Software V&V is not a one-time or isolated activity, but rather a continuous and integrated process that should be planned, executed, monitored, and controlled throughout the software development life cycle. To ensure success, it’s important to define clear and measurable software quality objectives and criteria based on user and stakeholder needs, as well as standards and regulations of the domain or industry. Additionally, appropriate software V&V methods and tools should be selected and applied according to the characteristics and complexity of the software, as well as the level of confidence and assurance required. Involving users and stakeholders in the software V&V processes is also key to ensure their participation, collaboration, and feedback. Finally, documenting and communicating the software V&V results is essential to provide evidence, transparency, and accountability of the software quality and reliability.
V&V can also be applied when migrating software from one infra structure to another (very common nowadays considering the amount of companies migrating form on-premises to cloud). Adding know checkpoints to your code to make it verifiable will increase success rate of such operations. Additionally, having a control group of input data that will result in a know output of the software process is a great approach to V&V your software in a new infrastructure. It is a proved scientific method used to validade studies around the globe that can be used as a powerful tool.