Munawar, PhD
Verification and Validation
SOFTWARE PROCESSES
The software process
A structured set of activities required to develop a
software system
Specification;
Design;
Validation;
Evolution.
A software process model is an abstract representation of a
process. It presents a description of a process from some
particular perspective.
Generic software process models
The waterfall model
Separate and distinct phases of specification and
development.
Evolutionary development
Specification, development and validation are interleaved.
Component-based software engineering
The system is assembled from existing components.
There are many variants of these models e.g. formal
development where a waterfall-like process is used but the
specification is a formal specification that is refined through
several stages to an implementable design.
Waterfall model
Process iteration
System requirements ALWAYS evolve in the
course of a project so process iteration where
earlier stages are reworked is always part of
the process for large systems.
Iteration can be applied to any of the generic
process models.
Process activities
Software specification
Software design and implementation
Software validation
Software evolution
Software specification
The process of establishing what services are
required and the constraints on the system’s
operation and development.
Requirements engineering process
Feasibility study;
Requirements elicitation and analysis;
Requirements specification (MS3);
Requirements verification (IA1, TA);
Requirements validation (Acceptance test)
The requirements engineering process
Verification and Validation
Assuring that a software
system meets a user's needs
Topics covered
Verification and validation planning
Software inspections
Verification vs validation
Verification:
"Are we building the product right"
The software should conform to its
specification
Validation:
"Are we building the right product"
The software should do what the user really
requires
The V & V process
Is a whole life-cycle process - V & V must be
applied at each stage in the software process.
Has two principal objectives
The discovery of defects in a system
The assessment of whether or not the system is
usable in an operational situation.
Static and dynamic
verification
Software inspections concerned with analysis of
the static system representation to discover
problems (static verification)
May be supplement by tool-based document and code
analysis
Software testing concerned with exercising and
observing product behaviour (dynamic
verification)
The system is executed with test data and its
operational behaviour is observed
Static and dynamic V&V
Static
verification
Requirements High-level Formal Detailed
specification Program
specification design design
Dynamic
Prototype
validation
Program testing
Can reveal the presence of errors NOT their
absence
A successful test is a test which discovers one
or more errors
The only validation technique for non-
functional requirements
Should be used in conjunction with static
verification to provide full V&V coverage
V & V goals
Verification and validation should establish
confidence that the software is fit for purpose
This does NOT mean completely free of
defects
Rather, it must be good enough for its
intended use and the type of use will
determine the degree of confidence that is
needed
V & V planning
Careful planning is required to get the most
out of testing and inspection processes
Planning should start early in the
development process
The plan should identify the balance between
static verification and testing
Test planning is about defining standards for
the testing process rather than describing
product tests
The V-model of development
Requir ements System System Detailed
specification specification design design
System Sub-system Module and
Acceptance
integration integration unit code
test plan
test plan test plan and tess
Acceptance System Sub-system
Service
test integration test integration test
The structure of a software
test plan**
The testing process
Requirements traceability
Tested items
Testing schedule
Test recording procedures
Hardware and software requirements
Constraints
**highly recommended that you being writing the
acceptance tests now – don’t wait until the test
plan is due
Software inspections
Involve people examining the source
representation with the aim of discovering
anomalies and defects
Do not require execution of a system so may
be used before implementation
May be applied to any representation of the
system (requirements, design, test data, etc.)
Very effective technique for discovering
errors
Inspection success
Many different defects may be discovered in
a single inspection. In testing, one defect may
mask another so several executions are
required
The reuse of domain and programming
knowledge means that reviewers are likely to
have seen the types of error that commonly
arise
Inspections and testing
Inspections and testing are complementary
and not opposing verification techniques
Both should be used during the V & V process
Inspections can check conformance with a
specification but not conformance with the
customer’s real requirements
Inspections cannot check non-functional
characteristics such as performance, usability,
etc.
Program inspections
Formalised approach to document reviews
Intended explicitly for defect DETECTION
(not correction)
Defects may be logical errors, anomalies in
the code that might indicate an erroneous
condition (e.g. an uninitialised variable), or
non-compliance with standards
Inspection pre-conditions
A precise specification must be available
Team members must be familiar with the
organisation standards
Syntactically correct code must be available
An error checklist should be prepared
Management must accept that inspection will
increase costs early in the software process
Management must not use inspections for staff
appraisal
The inspection process
Planning
Overview Follow-up
Individual
Rework
preparation
Inspection
meeting
Inspection procedure
System overview presented to inspection
team
Code and associated documents are
distributed to inspection team in advance
Inspection takes place and discovered errors
are noted
Modifications are made to repair discovered
errors
Re-inspection may or may not be required
Inspection teams
Made up of at least 4 members
Author of the code being inspected
Inspector who finds errors, omissions and
inconsistencies
Reader who reads the code to the team
Moderator who chairs the meeting and notes
discovered errors
Other roles are Scribe and Chief moderator
Inspection checklists
Checklist of common errors should be used to
drive the inspection
Error checklist is programming language
dependent
The 'weaker' the type checking, the larger the
checklist
Examples: Initialisation, Constant naming,
loop termination, array bounds, etc.
Fault class Inspection check
Data faults Are all program variables initialised before their values
are used?
Have all constants been named?
Should the lower bound of arrays be 0, 1, or something
else?
Should the upper bound of arrays be equal to the size of
the array or Size -1?
If character strings are used, is a d elimiter explicitly
assigned?
Control fau lts For each conditional statement, is the condition correct?
Is each loop certain to terminate?
Are compound statements correctly bracketed?
In case s tatements, are all possible cases accounted for?
Input/outpu t faults Are all input variables used?
Are all output variables ass igned a value before they are
output?
Interface faults Do all function and procedure calls have the correct
number of parameters?
Do formal and actual parameter types match?
Are the parameters in the right order?
If components access shared memory, do they have the
same model of the shared memory structure?
Storage management If a linked structure is modified, have all links been
faults correctly reassigned?
If dynamic storage is used, has space been allocated
correctly?
Is space explicitly de-allocated after it is no longer
required?
Exception Have all pos sible error conditio ns been taken into Inspection
management faults account?
checks
Inspection rate
500 statements/hour during overview
125 source statement/hour during individual
preparation
90-125 statements/hour can be inspected
Inspection is therefore an expensive process
Inspecting 500 lines costs about 40
man/hours
effort = £2800
Key points
Verification and validation are not the same
thing.
Verification shows conformance with specification
Validation shows that the program meets the
customer’s needs
Test plans should be drawn up to guide the
testing process.
Static verification techniques involve
examination and analysis of the program for
error detection
Key points
Program inspections are very effective in
discovering errors
Program code in inspections is checked by a
small team to locate software faults
