Verification Strategies

What is ‘Verification’?

Verification is the process of evaluating a system or component to determine whether the products of a given development phase satisfy the conditions imposed at the start of that phase.

What is the importance of the Verification Phase?

Verification process helps in detecting defects early, and preventing their leakage downstream. Thus, the higher cost of later detection and rework is eliminated.

Review

A process or meeting during which a work product, or set of work products, is presented to project personnel, managers, users, customers, or other interested parties for comment or approval.

The main goal of reviews is to find defects. Reviews are a good compliment to testing to help assure quality. A few purposes’ of SQA reviews can be as follows:

· Assure the quality of deliverable’s before the project moves to the next stage.

· Once a deliverable has been reviewed, revised as required, and approved, it can be used as a basis for the next stage in the life cycle.

What are the various types of reviews?

Types of reviews include Management Reviews, Technical Reviews, Inspections, Walkthroughs and Audits.

Management Reviews

Management reviews are performed by those directly responsible for the system in order to monitor progress, determine status of plans and schedules, confirm requirements and their system allocation.

Therefore the main objectives of Management Reviews can be categorized as follows:

· Validate from a management perspective that the project is making progress according to the project plan.

· Ensure that deliverables are ready for management approvals.

· Resolve issues that require management’s attention.

· Identify any project bottlenecks.

· Keeping project in Control.

Support decisions made during such reviews include Corrective actions, Changes in the allocation of resources or changes to the scope of the project

In management reviews the following Software products are reviewed:

Audit Reports

Contingency plans

Installation plans

Risk management plans

Software Q/A

The participants of the review play the roles of Decision-Maker, Review Leader, Recorder, Management Staff, and Technical Staff.

Technical Reviews

Technical reviews confirm that product Conforms to specifications, adheres to regulations, standards, guidelines, plans, changes are properly implemented, changes affect only those system areas identified by the change specification.

The main objectives of Technical Reviews can be categorized as follows:

· Ensure that the software confirms to the organization standards.

· Ensure that any changes in the development procedures (design, coding, testing) are implemented per the organization pre-defined standards.

In technical reviews, the following Software products are reviewed

· Software requirements specification

· Software design description

· Software test documentation

· Software user documentation

· Installation procedure

· Release notes

The participants of the review play the roles of Decision-maker, Review leader, Recorder, Technical staff.

What is Requirement Review?

A process or meeting during which the requirements for a system, hardware item, or software item are presented to project personnel, managers, users, customers, or other interested parties for comment or approval. Types include system requirements review, software requirements review.

Who is involved in Requirement Review?

· Product management leads Requirement Review. Members from every affected department participates in the review

Input Criteria

Software requirement specification is the essential document for the review. A checklist can be used for the review.

Exit Criteria

Exit criteria include the filled & completed checklist with the reviewers’ comments & suggestions and the re-verification whether they are incorporated in the documents.

What is Design Review?

A process or meeting during which a system, hardware, or software design is presented to project personnel, managers, users, customers, or other interested parties for comment or approval. Types include critical design review, preliminary design review, and system design review.

Who involve in Design Review?

· QA team member leads design review. Members from development team and QA team participate in the review.

Input Criteria

Design document is the essential document for the review. A checklist can be used for the review.

Exit Criteria

Exit criteria include the filled & completed checklist with the reviewers’ comments & suggestions and the re-verification whether they are incorporated in the documents.

What is Code Review?

A meeting at which software code is presented to project personnel, managers, users, customers, or other interested parties for comment or approval.

Who is involved in Code Review?

· QA team member (In case the QA Team is only involved in Black Box Testing, then the Development team lead chairs the review team) leads code review. Members from development team and QA team participate in the review.

Input Criteria

The Coding Standards Document and the Source file are the essential documents for the review. A checklist can be used for the review.

Exit Criteria

Exit criteria include the filled & completed checklist with the reviewers’ comments & suggestions and the re-verification whether they are incorporated in the documents.