Verification Vs Validation

                             Verification     Validation

Can you guess the Most Debated, Confused, Frequent Topic on the Software Testing Industry ?

It is Verification vs Validation.

Are these terms appealing as ‘Brothers’? Yes ,you are right. Verification and Validation do not just appear as Brothers, they are  identical Twins . Also in many cases , these Twins are like A pair of conjoined twins as 2 Suriya's casted in the famous Tamil Movie “MAATTRRAAN”.

As Twins appear to be Identical in Visual, but Thinking, Characters, Behaviors would be different. Same here as well Verification and Validation appears as Identical terms but the purpose for each term is very different.

Definitions: 

Verification: The process of evaluating Intermediate work Product to ensure that we are in the right track of creating Expected Product .

Are we building the product right?

Validation: The process to Evaluating Final Work Product to ensure that Product meets Customer/user Expectations.

Are we building the right product?

To Ensure product is Good in quality, it must pass both verification and validation . In some cases, Product pass verification but fails validation meaning product meets defined specifications but Defined Specification failed to meet user Expectations.

Let us discuss multiple examples to understand better .

Example 1: Going Shop to buy a  Pen

Verifications are , 1. Is Pen having ink?

    2. Is Pen having a Needle, Refill, Body, Bottom and Upper Cap?

     

Validations are , 1. Is Pen Writing on Paper ?

  2. Is Pen Writing Color Visible?

  3. Is Pen comfortable to Hold?

Example 2: Going Restaurant to Order 1kg Vanilla Cake

Verifications are , 

    1. Is Cake Color as expected?

    2. Is Cake Shape OK?

    3. Is Cake smell OK?

     

Validations are , 1. Is Cake Tastes Same as Expected Vanilla Flavor?

  2. Are we feeling good after eating cake?

  3. Is Cake Weight = 1kg?

Example 3 : Software Product

Verifications are 1. Evaluating the plans , Requirement Specifications, Design Documents ,Product Software Code, Test Cases by Peer Reviews , Inspections , Walkthroughs ,  Internal Testing , etc.,

Validations are 1. Customer Acceptance Testing in Real time