Verification, Validation, and Testing of Engineered Systems

4.3 PERFORM VVT ACTIVITIES

4.3.1 VVT Process Planning

This section explains how to perform VVT process planning. We briefly discuss (1) project planning (2) key tools for VVT process planning and (3) VVT process planning guidance.

Project Planning

VVT process planning at any phase of the system lifecycle should be considered a project planning unto itself. Like any project, it is “the art and science of using the historical data, archived information, personal expertise, institutional memory, organizational knowledge, and project scope statement to predict a project’s resource expenditures, total cost, and duration” (Rad and Anantatmula, 2005). From a simple and practical standpoint, VVT process planning may be divided into four steps:

Step 1: Setting Measurable Objectives. A VVT process is successful when the needs of the stakeholders have been met. Here, a stakeholder is anybody directly or indirectly affecting or impacted by the VVT process. Examples of VVT process stakeholders are the project team and management and customers and users of the project deliverables. Once stakeholders have been identified, their needs should be established. One way to do this is by conducting stakeholder interviews. Based on these interviews, a comprehensive list of needs should be drawn up and a set of prioritized measurable goals should be developed and recorded in the VVT process plan.

Step 2: Identifying Deliverables. Using the goals defined in step 1, generate a list of deliverables ...