Advanced Testing of Systems-of-Systems, Volume 2

4Test, QA or IV&V Teams

Various terminologies are used to describe the teams in charge of verifying – or validating – the proper functioning of software and systems that make up a system-of-systems.

The term QA (Quality Assurance) describes “a part of quality management, focused on providing evidence that quality requirements will be met”. A QA team will therefore be the people in charge of monitoring manufacturing and manufacturing processes. This term seems incorrect to designate people in charge of software testing because on a project all the participants are actors in the supply of quality deliverables, and there is no notion of assurance in the term quality assurance: no one ensures – in the sense of an insurance company – the quality of the software or component. The activities of the QA teams are mainly the verification of the processes which, if correctly followed, should guarantee the quality, unlike the testing activities which will focus on a functional and/or technical validation of the application. An interesting alternative to “quality assurance” would be “quality assistance” where the members of these teams would assist the production teams in improving the quality of their achievements..

We have the term “receipt” which includes the verification and validation activities of the components before their delivery. According to the organizations, acceptance activities will be called factory acceptance, VAPO (Verification of Aptitude for Proper Operation), VSR (Verification ...