Preparation activities include selecting products and product components for validation and establishing and maintaining the validation environment, procedures, and criteria. The items selected for validation may include only the product or it may include appropriate levels of the product components that are used to build the product. Any product or product component may be subject to validation, including replacement, maintenance, and training products, to name a few.
The environment required to validate the product or product component is prepared. The environment may be purchased or may be specified, designed, and built. The environments used for product integration and
verification may be considered in collaboration with the validation environment to reduce cost and improve efficiency or productivity.
SP 1.1 Select Products for Validation
Select products and product components to be validated and the validation methods that will be used for each.
Products and product components are selected for validation on the basis of their relationship to user needs. For each product component, the scope of the validation (e.g., operational behavior, maintenance, training, and user interface) should be determined.
The requirements and constraints for performing validation are collected. Then, validation methods are selected based on their ability to demonstrate that user needs are satisfied. The validation methods not only define the technical approach to product validation, but also drive the needs for the facilities, equipment, and environments. This may result in the generation of lower level product-component requirements that are handled by the requirements development processes. Derived requirements, such as interface requirements to test sets and test equipment, may be generated. These requirements are also passed to the requirements development processes to ensure that the product or product components can be validated in an environment that supports the methods.
Validation methods should be selected early in the life of the project so they are clearly understood and agreed to by the relevant stakeholders.
The validation methods address the development, maintenance, support, and training for the product or product component as appropriate.
Typical Work Products
1. Lists of products and product components selected for validation
2. Validation methods for each product or product component
3. Requirements for performing validation for each product or product component
4. Validation constraints for each product or product component
Subpractices
1. Identify the key principles, features, and phases for product or product-component validation throughout the life of the project.
SP 1.1 Select Products for Validation
Select products and product components to be validated and the validation methods that will be used for each.
Products and product components are selected for validation on the basis of their relationship to user needs. For each product component, the scope of the validation (e.g., operational behavior, maintenance, training, and user interface) should be determined.
The requirements and constraints for performing validation are collected. Then, validation methods are selected based on their ability to demonstrate that user needs are satisfied. The validation methods
not only define the technical approach to product validation, but also drive the needs for the facilities, equipment, and environments. This may result in the generation of lower level product-component
requirements that are handled by the requirements development processes. Derived requirements, such as interface requirements to test sets and test equipment, may be generated. These requirements are also passed to the requirements development processes to ensure that the product or product components can be validated in an environment that supports the methods.
Validation methods should be selected early in the life of the project so they are clearly understood and agreed to by the relevant stakeholders.
The validation methods address the development, maintenance, support, and training for the product or product component as appropriate.
Typical Work Products
1. Lists of products and product components selected for validation
2. Validation methods for each product or product component
3. Requirements for performing validation for each product or product component
4. Validation constraints for each product or product component
Subpractices
1. Identify the key principles, features, and phases for product or product-component validation throughout the life of the project.
· Real interfaced systems (e.g., aircraft for testing a radar with trajectory tracking facilities)
· Facilities and customer-supplied products
· The skilled people to operate or use all the above elements
· Dedicated computing or network test environment (e.g., pseudooperational telecommunications-network testbed or facility with actual trunks, switches, and systems established for realistic integration and validation trials)
Early selection of the products or product components to be validated, the work products to be used in the validation, and the validation methods is needed to ensure that the validation environment will be available when necessary.
The validation environment should be carefully controlled to provide for replication, analysis of results, and re-validation of problem areas.
Typical Work Products
1. Validation environment
Subpractices
1. Identify validation environment requirements.
2. Identify customer-supplied products.
3. Identify reuse items.
4. Identify test equipment and tools.
5. Identify validation resources that are available for reuse and modification.
6. Plan the availability of resources in detail.
SP 1.3 Establish Validation Procedures and Criteria
Establish and maintain procedures and criteria for validation.
Validation procedures and criteria are defined to ensure that the product or product component will fulfill its intended use when placed in its intended environment. Acceptance test cases and procedures may meet the need for validation procedures.
The validation procedures and criteria include test and evaluation of maintenance, training, and support services.
Examples of sources for validation criteria include the following:
· Product and product-component requirements
· Standards
· Customer acceptance criteria
· Environmental performance
· Thresholds of performance deviation
Typical Work Products
1. Validation procedures
2. Validation criteria
3. Test and evaluation procedures for maintenance, training, and support
Subpractices
1. Review the product requirements to ensure that issues affecting validation of the product or product component are identified and resolved.
2. Document the environment, operational scenario, procedures, inputs, outputs, and criteria for the validation of the selected product or product component.
3. Assess the design as it matures in the context of the validation environment to identify validation issues.
