Planning the verification, validation, and testing process: a case study demonstrating a decision support model

Abstract

ABSTRACTSystem VVT (verification, validation, and testing) are essential activities within the domain of system engineering and need to be performed before delivering or marketing products; but to ensure the product complies with customer and engineering requirements in the best possible manner, all three activities should be implemented throughout the product project life cycle. The main objective of VVT is to ensure the customer receives a quality product and neither the customer nor the supplier is burdened with the cost of rework due to failures of the product after delivery. The literature includes very little research for effectively associating VVT methods to VVT activities and also taking into consideration project constraints such as cost, risk, and schedule. In our previous studies, we developed an analytical model that, given project constraints, produced an optimal VVT plan and provided a recovery procedure to manage unexpected events within the VVT process. The use of the model was demonstrated on a sample problem incorporating some unforeseen events. In this paper, we go one step further and use our model to analyse a real industrial project. As expected in a case study, the model has been further developed throughout the case implementation; specifically, a new quantitative model for assessing quality as a function of the test coverage of the VVT process was developed. The project manager found the model output valuable and informative to his work and thus enthusiastically collaborated on this case study research. Besides the report of the case study, we also conducted three focus group discussions to obtain insights, opinions, attitudes, and perceptions of the participants on the proposed analytical model as a decision support model.