5th International Conference on the Quality of Information and Communications Technology

TU10 - TUTORIAL

Title: Verification and Validation Techniques and Tools

Abstract: This tutorial focus on techniques and tools that help to put in practice the Verification and Validation (V&V) processes. It provides particular emphasis on aspects related to Reliability, Availability, Maintainability and Safety (RAMS). It also describes the process of performing V&V activities by an independent organization (ISVV – Independent Software Verification and Validation).

The Verification process covers all development phases and it aims at assuring that the development processes are correctly conducted and that the work products produced fulfill the quality requirements established. The following techniques will be addressed: Document Reviews, Software Failure Mode Effects and Criticality Analysis (SFMECA), Software Fault Tree Analysis (SFTA), Traceability Analysis, Schedulability Analysis, Code Analysis and Code Inspections. The use of some tools will be demonstrated.

The Validation process is responsible for assuring that a software work product conforms to its specification. Several testing techniques used in order to validate requirements related to RAMS, including robustness and stress testing techniques, are focused. The use of Xception™ tool for robustness testing is demonstrated.

This tutorial presents the ISVV process stressing its benefits and constraints.

Schedule: Wednesday, 14.30 / 18.00

Speaker: Ricardo Maia, Nuno Silva e Francisco Moreira (Critical Software)

Brief CVs:

	Ricardo Maia works on the dependability domain and has been leading the development of Xception product. He has been a key person on the ESA’s STADY (Applied Static and Dynamic Verification of Critical Software) project, dealing with V&V methods and techniques such as SFMECA, SFTA and robustness and stress testing. He led the assessment of the RTEMS real-time operating system robustness under contract with ESA. Recently he worked on the SPEC (Software Product Evaluation and Certification) based evaluation of the RTEMS. Is a member of the European Cooperation for Space Standardization Q-80-03 – “Methods and techniques to support the assessment of software dependability and safety” – Working Group.
	Nuno Silva is the technical leader of the CRYOSAT ISVV project where he has acquired extensive knowledge on system avionics. The tasks performed in the frame of the CRYOSAT ISVV include requirements, design and code analysis, CDMU Schedulability analysis, data and control flow analysis and SVF test activities. He has also been technical leader and project manager of other important projects. He has more than 6 years of software engineering experience working with embedded/real time systems and telecommunications with Motorola and NBS Systems/MIST wireless in Canada.
	Francisco Moreira has published several papers in international conferences on Dependability subject. Senior Software Engineer and Researcher at Critical Software, he has been involved in both management and research positions on several R&D projects, both at National and International levels. He conducted the dynamic verification activities of the STADY project (Applied Static and Dynamic Verification of Critical Software), ESA contract 15751/02/NL/LvH. Francisco Moreira is very knowledgeable with the application of multiple RAMS techniques including FMECAs, FTAs HSIA, CMFA and stress testing/fault-injection techniques.