11 Mar BEHIND THE CORRECT DOOR
An earlier blog described the Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) that one expects to find behind the correct door. This blog describes the skills and experience to expected from someone who claims to be an IV&V specialist. The verification and validation processes are technical processes of system, software and hardware engineering. When they are performed by those who are not part of the development team, when they are not managed by the development manager and when their funding is not related to development funding then they are considered to be Independent.
Whether you need a team or a single individual you should look for the following – and the more of these you get the better off you will be.
– Full life cycle experience. This requires hands on experience with the multiple life cycle phases and their outputs.
– Working knowledge of verification and validation and related voluntary standards. This requires experience verifying and validating the outputs of the life cycle phases according to the applicable voluntary standards.
– Aptitude for detail and pattern matching. The verification and validation specialist should be comfortable with an attention to detail and have the ability to discern patterns so as to be able to determine what is off-pattern. Paying attention to detail and looking for patterns requires a degree of tenacity. Documents have to be read and re-read. People have to be questioned and re-questioned.
– Communication skills. The verification and validation specialist, especially at a senior level, must have demonstrated strong oral and written communication skills. A lower level specialist should be focused on improving their communication skills as well as their verification and validation skills.
– Certification. Currently there are no major organizations that offer a certification specifically for verification and validation. However there are certifications that are related. These include the newest one – A Professional Software Engineering Process Master Certification offered by the IEEE Computer Society; a prior one offered by the IEEE Computer Society – Certified Software Development Professional and the Certified Software Quality Engineer (CSQE) offered by the American Society for Quality. Each of these requires a combination of education, related work experience, and a written examination.
The final thing to look for is amount of experience needed for the tasking vs. the amount of experience provided by the candidate.
By choosing The IV&V Group® you will have access to all of the above. We look forward to hearing from you.
