There are various software development approaches defined and designed which are used/employed during development process of software, these approaches are also referred as “Software Development Process Models” (e.g. Waterfall model, incremental model, V-model, iterative model, RAD model, Agile model, Spiral model, Prototype model etc.). Each process model follows a particular life cycle in order to ensure success in process of software development. [Read more…] about What are the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) phases?
What is Capability Maturity Model (CMM)? What are CMM Levels?
Capability Maturity Model is a bench-mark for measuring the maturity of an organization’s software process. It is a methodology used to develop and refine an organization’s software development process. CMM can be used to assess an organization against a scale of five process maturity levels based on certain Key Process Areas (KPA). It describes the maturity of the company based upon the project the company is dealing with and the clients. Each level ranks the organization according to its standardization of processes in the subject area being assessed. [Read more…] about What is Capability Maturity Model (CMM)? What are CMM Levels?
What is Validation in software testing? or What is software validation?
Validation is determining if the system complies with the requirements and performs functions for which it is intended and meets the organization’s goals and user needs.
- Validation is done at the end of the development process and takes place after verifications are completed.
- It answers the question like: Am I building the right product?
- Am I accessing the right data (in terms of the data required to satisfy the requirement).
- It is a High level activity.
- Performed after a work product is produced against established criteria ensuring that the product integrates correctly into the environment.
- Determination of correctness of the final software product by a development project with respect to the user needs and requirements.
According to the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) we can also define validation as The process of evaluating software during or at the end of the development process to determine whether it satisfies specified requirements. [IEEE-STD-610].
A product can pass while verification, as it is done on the paper and no running or functional application is required. But, when same points which were verified on the paper is actually developed then the running application or product can fail while validation. This may happen because when a product or application is build as per the specification but these specifications are not up to the mark hence they fail to address the user requirements.
Advantages of Validation:
- During verification if some defects are missed then during validation process it can be caught as failures.
- If during verification some specification is misunderstood and development had happened then during validation process while executing that functionality the difference between the actual result and expected result can be understood.
- Validation is done during testing like feature testing, integration testing, system testing, load testing, compatibility testing, stress testing, etc.
- Validation helps in building the right product as per the customer’s requirement and helps in satisfying their needs.
Validation is basically done by the testers during the testing. While validating the product if some deviation is found in the actual result from the expected result then a bug is reported or an incident is raised. Not all incidents are bugs. But all bugs are incidents. Incidents can also be of type ‘Question’ where the functionality is not clear to the tester.
Hence, validation helps in unfolding the exact functionality of the features and helps the testers to understand the product in much better way. It helps in making the product more user friendly.
Also Read: What is Verification in Software Testing?
What is Verification in software testing? or What is software verification?
Verification makes sure that the product is designed to deliver all functionality to the customer.
- Verification is done at the starting of the development process. It includes reviews and meetings, walk-throughs, inspection, etc. to evaluate documents, plans, code, requirements and specifications.
- Suppose you are building a table. Here the verification is about checking all the parts of the table, whether all the four legs are of correct size or not. If one leg of table is not of the right size it will imbalance the end product. Similar behavior is also noticed in case of the software product or application. If any feature of software product or application is not up to the mark or if any defect is found then it will result into the failure of the end product. Hence, verification is very important. It takes place at the starting of the development process.
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Software verification and validation [Read more…] about What is Verification in software testing? or What is software verification?
What is Software Quality?
Quality software is reasonably bug or defect free, delivered on time and within budget, meets requirements and/or expectations, and is maintainable.