In the development of critical applications for human safety, the validation activity is one of the most important tasks to be performed, andit  is considered as the main activity to minimize systematic errors. This activity often requires an effort comparable to the project implementation, and it is almost always compliant, for example, with the international standards on functional safety: IEC 61508, IEC 61511, IEC 62061, IEC CENELEC EN 50126/50128/50129, IEC 61513 , etc.

Validation activities

• drafting of Verification and Validation plans containing the planning of Verification and Validation (V & V) activities, and selection of the methods and techniques to be used in such processes;
• drafting of the protocols of the functional type tests, such as writing the specification  of the software requirement tests; 

• drafting test plans for software integration and hardware-software integration;

• drafting the validation specs of software modules; 

• execution of case studies specified in the relevant specification of  module test, software integration and HW / SW integration, including the drafting of the relevant validation reports;

• execution of the factory functional tests (FAT) and of the  site functional tests (SAT) and drafting of the validation reports;

• validation through use of special suites, of translators/compilers software, both in a simulated environment, and in hardware target .

Validation techniques

• validation of software translators and compilers with use of dedicated validation suites such Plum Hall, both in "Hosted" and "Target" environment;
   

• protocol and specification validation project implementation, with automatic tracking of requirements coverage;

• test for the functional validation of software using dedicated tools such as Cantata, Rational, Simulink, etc.;

• creation of the databases of test cases using dedicated tools (IBM Optim Version, Rational, etc.);

• dynamic analysis of software using dedicated tools (Rational, Parasoft, Valgrind, etc.);

• harness testing;

• use of tools to perform static analysis and code coverage (Splint, Parasoft, GCOV, etc.);

• automation of the testing process using the PLC or developing "ad hoc" tools.