100 n The Art of Software Modeling
Test-Based Verification
Another time-honored way to validate a model is via testing. Although similar in
many ways to prototype development, validation through testing goes one step fur-
ther by requiring more rigorous acceptance criteria. For test-based validation, there
can be no test cases that are in conflict with the model; the model must either be
modified to account for the discrepancy or discarded as inadequate. is approach
is often used in research to provide support for theoretical models. Because these
models are constructed to be predictive, they can be directly tested by experimental
procedures based on those predictions. Many scientific theories have failed to meet
this high standard and as a re ...