You want to launch a software program. You’ve chosen the team, defined the budget, and committed to a deadline to get the system live. But even before launch, the software starts to show bugs. That’s it! Budget compromised, deadline missed, and friction with your boss or client!

No one wants to go through this. Nor does it need to. There are resources to assess whether the software will function properly, even before the coding stage. This is the process of verifying the system to ensure it meets the requirements—that is, its ability to do exactly what was defined in the business objectives.

Requirements in alignment with the software’s proposed behavior are the first inspection to ensure project success.

But the use of inspections (verification and validation) must occur at all stages of the software development cycle, because once a failure is detected at one stage, the others may be affected.

Verification and validation are essential measures for the system’s usability, functionality, and performance. These performance measures are essential for the system to meet software quality requirements.

Verification and validation must also be implemented whenever there is a software update, a situation with a high potential for failures.