Overview
This tutorial will outline the differences between Verification and Validation. Let’s first understand the terms.
What is verification?
Verification ensures the product is designed to deliver all functionality to the customer; it typically involves reviews and meetings to evaluate documents, plans, code, requirements, and specifications; this can be done with checklists, issues lists, walkthroughs, and inspection meetings.
What is validation?
Validation ensures that functionality, as defined in requirements, is the intended behavior of the product; validation typically involves actual testing and takes place after verifications are completed.
Verification vs Validation
Some of the differences are as follows:
| Verification | Validation |
| Verification is a static testing procedure. | Validation is a dynamic testing procedure. |
| It involves verifying the requirements, detailed design documents, test plans, walkthroughs, and inspections of various documents produced during the development and testing process. |
Validation involves actual testing of the product as per the test plan (unit test, integration test, system test, acceptance test, etc). |
| It is a preventive procedure. | It is a corrective procedure. |
| Are we building the product RIGHT? | Are we building the RIGHT product? |
| It involves more than two to three persons and is a group activity | It involves the testers and sometimes users. |
| It is also called Human testing since it involves finding the errors by persons participating in a review or walk-through. | It is also called Computer testing since errors are found by testing the software on a computer. |
| Verification occurs on Requirements, Design, and code. | Validation occurs only on code and the executable application. |
| Verification finds errors early in the requirement & design phase. The cost of errors is less. | Validation finds errors only during the testing stage; hence, the cost of errors is higher. |
| An effective tool for verification tool is a Checklist. | Various manual and automated test tools are available for Validation. |
| It requires cooperation and scheduling of meetings and discussions. | It is to check that the product satisfies the requirements and is accepted by the user. |
| Verification tasks include: Planning ExecutionVerification activities include:
|
Validation tasks include: Planning Testware Development Test Execution Testware MaintenanceValidation activities include:
|
Verification deliverables (work products) are:
|
Validation deliverables are:
|