The Role of Software Verification and Validation in Software Quality Assurance Process
The Role of Software Verification and Validation in Software Quality Assurance Process
The Software Quality Assurance (SQA) process compromises of the verification and validation process of the software code. In general, guaranteeing that the software conforms to its specification while meeting the customer needs. Let us compare and contrast the verification and validation process.
Verification and validation begin by reviewing the requirements and covering the design and analysis of the code up to the product testing. For this reason, verification demands to check that the program meets specified requirements. While, on the other hand, validation requires examining that the software product meets the client expectation as well as a formal proof of program correctness (IEEE, 1990). For this reason, let us display their differences in a table view:
The image below summarize, compare, and contrast the different techniques and perception in respect of verification and validation.
Verification vs. Validation (Engel, 2010)
Verification and validation techniques (Easterbrook, 2010)
On the other hand, verification and validation purpose is to find a defect differently. For this reason, verification is used to discover the errors in the specified requirements while validation is utilized to detect the errors in the software application. Finally, testing is the process related to the activities performed in a system, and the results are observed or recorded, and the evaluation is made of some aspect of the system.
The V-model also means verification and validation. For this reason, the left side of the V-model is related to the stakeholders’ requirements satisfaction and the design of the required system and its elements. On the right side of the image, responsibility includes constructing the individual components, integrating them and then verifying and validating the complete system.
V-model (Easterbrook, 2010)
In summary, verification and validation are both necessary and complementary. While both of them provides its own sets of filters, however, each one of them uses its own way to detect errors in an efficient and effective software quality process.
References
Easterbrook, S. (2010) The difference between Verification and Validation [Online]. Available from: http://www.easterbrook.ca/steve/2010/11/the-difference-between-verification-and-validation/ (Accessed: 15 November 2017).
Engel, A. (2010) Verification, validation, and testing of engineered systems. [electronic book]. ISBN: 9780470527511. Wiley [Online].
IEEE. (1990) ‘IEEE Standard Glossary of Software Engineering Terminology’, IEEE Std 610.12–1990, pp.1–84, IEEE Xplore [Online]. DOI: 10.1109/IEEESTD.1990.101064
