Software Verification &

Validation
By:
Sunmeet Sethi
Bhavin kansara
Outline
 Introduction to Verification and Validation
 What is Verification
 What is Validation
 Verification and Validation Techniques
* Static Techniques (Inspection)
* Dynamic Techniques (Testing)
 Independent Verification and Validation
 References
Introduction
 Verification & Validation : It is the process of
checking that a software system meets specifications
and that it fulfills its intended purpose
 It involves checking the software against its
specifications.
 It is used to describe ways of achieving quality
software.
 Verification is done during the project development
life cycle where as validation is done after the
product is ready.
Introduction
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
Example
 Assume we have to develop an adder which
should add only two integer and floating point
numbers and should generate an error if string
is given as an input.

What is the verification and validation part in

this example?
Example ( Cont.)
 Verification
* It should take two inputs that should be
integer or floating point.
* It should generate an error if string is given
as input
 Validation
* It should add and give the accurate result
Verification
 Verification is a broad and complex discipline of
software engineering whose goal is to assure that a
software fully satisfies all the expected requirements.
 Verification involves evaluating software during
each life cycle phase to ensure that it meets the
requirements set forth in the previous phase.
 Verification includes Inspection
code inspection, design inspection etc.
Terms involved in Verification
 Inspection
Team of at least 4 people, which formally reviews
the documents and work products during various
phases of the product development life cycle
 Walkthroughs
it is same as inspection without formal preparation
(presentation and documentation)
 Buddy Checks
it is used to find out bugs in a work product during
verification
Validation
 involves testing software or its specification at
the end of the development effort to ensure
that it meet its requirements.
Terms used in Validation
* Unit testing
* System testing
* Integration testing
* Functional testing
V & V MUST BE APPLIED AT EACH STAGE IN THE
SOFTWARE PROCESS
Benefits of Verification and Validation
 To detect and Stop defects at early stages of
life cycle
 To ensure software quality.
 Ensure resulting product is sound and safe to
use.
Index Standard Cost Ratio to fix a
defect
Verification and Validation Technique
 Static Techniques
 Software Inspections
(against source code)

 Dynamic Techniques
 Software Testing
(requires executable program)
What is Inspection
 An inspection is a formal review of a work product
by the work product owner and a team of peers
looking for errors, omissions, inconsistencies, and
areas of confusion in the work product.
 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 if
done properly
Inspection pre-conditions
 A precise specification must be available.
 Team members must be familiar with the
organisation standards.
 Syntactically correct code or other system
representations must be available.
 An error checklist should be prepared.
 Management must accept that inspection will
increase costs early in the software process.
 Management should not use inspections for staff
appraisal ie finding out who makes mistakes.
The Inspection Team – at least 4
members
 Author: This is usually the person who originally constructed
the work product
 Moderator: responsible for ensuring that the inspection
procedures are performed through out the entire inspection
process.
 Reader: Leads the inspection and who reads the code to the
team.
 Recorder: will document all defects that arise from the
inspection meeting.
 Inspector: All of the Inspection Team individuals are also
considered to play the Inspector role. The Inspector role is
responsible for analyzing and detecting defects within the
work product.
Inspection Types
 Requirement Inspection
 Design Inspection

 Code Inspection

 Test Inspection

These all types consists of four stages

The Software Inspection Stages
1. Planning
 Period of time in which details for an inspection
are decided and necessary arrangements are
made.
 These usually include
* selecting the inspection team
* finding a time and venue for the inspection
meeting
* deciding whether an orientation meeting is
needed.
2. Preparation
 The objective of this stage is to detect the potential defects
in the work product
 Usually a checklist is used to suggest potential defects in
the work product.
 inspectors individually study and examine the work
product
3. Inspection Meeting
 Objective is to find problems not solve them
 Meeting where the work product is examined
for defects by the entire inspection team.
 The results of this meeting are recorded in a
defect list (defect log).
4. Follow-Up
 Short meeting between the author and
moderator to verify that defects found during
the inspection meeting have been corrected
 Involves re-inspection, if all defects are not
corrected
In summary - Inspection
 System overview is presented to the 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,
depending on the density and severity of defect
discovered
 When we find an error in an inspection, we also
know its nature and location. That is not so in
testing.
Software Testing
 Testing is the process of executing a program
with the intent of finding errors
 Testing is obviously concerned with errors,
faults, failures and incidents. A test is the act
of exercising software with test cases with an
objective of
 Finding failure
 Demonstrate correct execution
Objective of Testing
 Provide confidence in the system
 Identify areas of weakness
 Establish the degree of quality
 Establish the extent that the requirements have been
met, i.e. what the users asked for is what they got not
what someone else though they wanted
 To provide an understanding of the overall system
 To prove it is both usable and operable
A sample testing cycle
 Requirements Analysis: Testing should begin in the
requirements phase of the software development life
cycle
 Test Planning: Test Strategy
 Test Development: Test Procedures, Test Scenarios,
Test Cases to use in testing software
 Test Execution: Testers execute the software based
on the plans and tests and report any errors found to
the development team.
 Retesting the Defects
Testing Classification
 There are two levels of classification
 One distinguishes at granularity level
 Unit level
 Integration level
 System level
 Other classification (mostly for unit level) is
based on methodologies
 Black box (Functional) Testing
 White box (Structural) Testing
 Testing Classification
Subsystem Requirements
Unit System
Code Test Analysis
Design Document
Tested Document User
Subsystem
Subsystem Manual
Unit
Code Test
Tested Integration Functional
Subsystem
Test Test
Integrated Functioning
Subsystems System

Tested Subsystem
Subsystem Unit
Code Test
All tests by developer
Unit Testing
 Unit testing is a procedure used to validate that individual
units of source code are working properly.
 Unit testing involves only those characteristics that are vital
to the performance of the unit under test. This encourages
developers to modify the source code without immediate
concerns about how such changes might affect the
functioning of other units or the program as a whole.
 Once all of the units in a program have been found to be
working in the most efficient and error-free manner possible,
larger components of the program can be evaluated by means
of integration testing.
Integration Testing
 It is a software development process, in which
program units are combined and tested as groups in
multiple ways.
 The objective of integration testing is to find bugs
related to interfaces between modules as they are
integrated together.
 There are two major ways of carrying out an
integration test
 bottom-up method
 top-down method
Top Down Method
Strategy
 Start with subsystems in top layer of call
hierarchy
 Include subsystems that are called by the
previously tested subsystems
 Repeat until all subsystems are included
Top Down Method
M1

M2 M3 M4

M5 M6 M7

M8
Bottom Up Method
Strategy
 Start with subsystems in lowest layer of
call hierarchy
 Test subsystems that call the previously
tested subsystems
 Repeat until all subsystems are included
Bottom Up Method
Mc

Ma Mb

D1 D2 D3
System Testing
 Testing that attempts to discover defects that are
properties of the entire system rather than of its
individual components.
 The purpose of system testing is to identify defects
that will only surface when a complete system is
assembled. That is, defects that cannot be attributed
to individual components or the interaction between
two components.
 System testing includes testing of performance,
security, startup and recovery from failure modes.
Black Box Testing

 Also known as functional testing

 No knowledge of software design is used
 Test are strictly based on requirements and
functionality
 This test is carried out by someone else other
then the designer or coder
Advantages of Black Box Testing
 The test is unbiased because the designer and
the tester are independent of each other.
 The tester does not need knowledge of any
specific programming languages.
 The test is done from the point of view of the
user, not the designer.
 Test cases can be designed as soon as the
specifications are complete.
Disadvantages of Black Box Testing
 The test can be redundant if the software
designer has already run a test case.
 The test cases are difficult to design.
 Testing every possible input stream is
unrealistic because it would take a inordinate
amount of time; therefore, many program
paths will go untested.
White Box Testing

 Also known as glass box, structural, clear box and open

box testing.
 It is a method of testing in which knowledge of
software's internal design is used to develop a test
 white box testing uses specific knowledge of
programming code to examine outputs.
Comparison between Black & White
Box Testing
Black Box Testing White Box Testing
concerned only with testing the software concerned only with testing the
product. implementation.
it cannot guarantee that the complete it cannot guarantee that all parts of the
specification has been implemented implementation have been tested
black box testing is testing against the White box testing is testing against the
specification and will discover implementation and will discover
faults of omission, indicating that part of faults of commission, indicating that
the specification has not been fulfilled part of the implementation is faulty
Less expensive then white box testing More expensive then black box testing
start test planning with a black box test White box planning should commence
approach as soon as the specification is as soon as all black box tests have been
available successfully passed
Independent Verification and Validation
 Independent verification and validation is
performed by an organization that is
technically, managerially and financially
independent of the development organization.
Key Points
 Verification shows conformance with the
specification whereas validation shows that the
program meets the customer’s needs.
 Test plans should be drawn up to guide the testing
process.
 Program inspections are effective in discovering
errors.
 Static verification involves examination and analysis
of the source code for error detection, and can be
used to discover anomalies in the source code.
References
 Guide to software verification and validation --- ESA
Board for Software Standardization and Control (BSSC).
 Software Verification and Validation for Practitioners
and Managers, Second Edition by Steven R. Rakitin.
 Validation, Verification, and Testing of Computer
Software , W. Richards Adrion, Martha A. Branstad,
John C. Cherniavsky .ACM journal, computing surveys
 Software verification and validation : an overview by
Dolores Wallace and Roger Fujii, IEEE Software
 IEEE guide for software verification and validation plans