Validation and verification vs. The software life cycle(Position Statement)
Leon G. Stucki · 1978
In attempting to forecast the future trends in software engineering, a very dynamic future appears to be in store. Validation and verification are rapidly becoming recognized as an integral part of the total software life cycle. Validation and verification are no longer being viewed as new names for testing. A modern view of validation and verification encompasses the set of tasks and functions needed for tracing requirements through the evolving stages of the system life cycle down to the final implemented code. At each stage of program development, verification of each successively developed representation back to the next higher level representation needs to be performed. Validation is a separate functional activity which also needs to be performed. The main difference between validation and verification is, instead of examining the mapping between representations, an attempt is made to ensure the system will correctly implement the users preceived requirements; the principle question being: Is the system usable?