ABSTRACT
The words software verification and validation (V&V) embody philosophic, methodological, and process aspects of software engineering without actually encompassing a tangible item. Consequently, it is very difficult to discuss V&V in a manner that allows the non-software engineer to come to grips with the physical activities of V&V. Most of the discussion up until now has been primarily related to software development as a systematic approach to the software life cycle. Verification and validation are activities that shadow and parallel the software development activities in such a way that they are sometimes assumed to consist of a single, additional software testing phase that follows the final software integration phase. In practice, this step does exist, but software V&V is so ubiquitous that it is usually misunderstood and misaligned. Contributing to the illusion that software V&V are inherent software characteristics and activities is the fact that nearly all of the preceding discussions related to software development methodology, process, documentation, analysis, and design and testing are equally applicable to the software V&V activities.
