Guideline: Defining Practices for Validation
This guideline provides considerations for defining practices that projects will use for validation.
Main Description

Validation practices are defined to prevent the following issues:

  • large numbers of user change requests right before or soon after the product is released
  • a product that does not meet customer expectations

The following are typical activities and key considerations for validation to reference as you define practices for your organization.

  • Describe validation practices so project teams can demonstrate that a product or product component fulfills its intended use when placed in its intended environment. Determine what validation techniques to perform (e.g. user acceptance testing, fault injection, prototyping), and create practices for each type. Specify the output work products for validation tasks, including the lists of products and product components selected for validation (often documented in a tool with a validation cross-references matrix).
  • Document how validation will be performed with stakeholders as part of iterative development practices (e.g. meetings, demonstrations, prototypes) in order to remove problems as early in the lifecycle as possible.
  • Specify what should be validated across the product lifecycle (e.g. products and product components, operational scenarios, work products and processes) and what validation methods will be used. Work products should be selected based on whether they are good predictors of how well the product will satisfy user needs.
  • Define policies and practices for user acceptance testing to confirm that products meet their specified and mutually agreed-upon requirements. Confirm that policies are in place to ensure acceptance criteria are discussed and confirmed with the customer in advance of the actual user acceptance testing.
  • Validation practices must address more than the software components of the system and their associated work products. Describe the validation of operations, required training, manufacturing, maintenance, and related support services.
  • Specify what project-level validation data should be collected for future analysis. 
  • Specify organizational policies, tools and tool configurations for validation environments to support all validation activities. These will be tailored for individual projects to represent the intended environment for the product.