ABSTRACT
Validation, verification, and especially certification are skill and effort demanding activities. Typically, specialized small and medium enterprises perform the independent assessment of safety critical applications. Prediction of the work needed to accomplish them is crucial for the management of such projects, which is by nature heavily dependent on the implementation of the V&V process and its support. Verification and validation, and Independent Software and System Verification and Validation are crucial in critical system development. However, the execution of such activities underlies strict time and budget limits and depends on input elements delivered by the entity performing the design and implementation of surprisingly changing quality. Cost estimators are fundamental elements all along the lifecycle of a project from the proposal definition through the project execution and a posteriori evaluation.
