Risk-Based Trade-Off Between Verification and Validation – An Industry-Motivated Study

Abstract

Within industry the demand for short lead-time and reduced effort consumption is in focus. For an associated industry partner the lead-time and effort focus has meant turning the interest towards the Verification and Validation (V&V) process. The industry cooperation motivating this study aims at providing a tailored and applicable V&V process, where the order of verification and validation may be changed as well as the amount of V&V activities conducted. Through the industry cooperation as well as industrial and academic experience, a method has been formulated that address how to select a suitable V&V process depending on the functionality being developed. The method describes how a suitable process is created and selected, where the appropriate process is identified based on functionality and coupling between the system entities being developed. It is concluded that the method provides support, structure and clarification to address the possibilities to a trade-off between verification and validation. Key range Processes Motivation [1-2 : 1-3] P4, P3, P2, P8 Key representing easy internal validation, with low coupling, possibility to go for low V&V, or focusing on finalizing the product through high verification. [1-2 : 3-5] P1, P2 Key representing easy internal validation, with high coupling, high verification is recommended. [3-4 : 1-2] P6, P3 Key representing challenging validation, with low coupling, high validation early is recommended, possible lower verification [3-4 : 2-4] P6, P3, P5 Key representing challenging validation, with intermediate coupling, early and high validation recommended, but also high verification. [4-5 : 4-5] P5 Key indicating tough validation and high coupling, early and high validation is recommended.