Software verification and validation

It is important to be able to tell if a system meets specifications and if it runs correctly. These are the processes of verification and validation. Verification is the process of determining if a system meets the conditions set forth at the beginning. Validation is the process of evaluating a system to determine whether it satisfies the specified requirements.

In mission-critical systems where flawless performance is absolutely necessary, formal methods can be used to ensure the correct operation of a system. However, often-times for non-mission-critical systems, formal methods prove to be very costly and an alternative method of V&V must be sought out. In this case, syntactic methods are often used.