VERIFICATION & VALIDATION

In Software Project management,software engineering and software testing,Verification and Validation(V&V), is the process of checking that the software system meets specification and that it full fills its intended purpose. It may also be referred as software quality control.

Verification :

• It is the process of determining whether or not the products of a given phase of software (s/w) development, fullfill the specifications established during the previous phase.
• Verification is concerned with phase containment of errors.
• Verification takes place before Validation.
• Verification: "Are We Building the Product Right"
• Verification refers to the needs of the users.
• Done by the developers of the software product.
• It checks for documentation,code,plans,specifications,requirements.
• The s/w is inspected by looking into the code going line by line or function by function.

Validation:

• It is the process of evaluating  the s/w in the end of the s/w development to ensure compliance with the s/w requirement. 
• It is the process of determining whether a fully developed system confirms to its requirement specification.
• Testing is the common method of Validation .
• Aim of Validation is that the final product to be error free.
• For high reliability we need to perform both verification and validation activities.
• Validation : "Are We Building the Right Product"
• Validation refers to the correctness of the implementation of the specifications by the software system or application.
• Done by the testers and it  is done against the requirements.
• It checks the whole product.
• In validation the code is executed and the s/w is run to find defects.

The major V& V activities for s/w development are inspection,reviews and testing. Testing is an activity that can be generally performed only on code.