Unification of verification and validation methods for software systems: progress report and initial case study formulation

This paper presents initial research on unification of methods for verification and validation (V&V) of software systems. The synergism among methods for V&V are described. The requirements for a unification are defined. The initial steps of a case study of application of the unified approach to V&V is sketched including definition of the problem domain, the approach and some details of a property specification language. An undergraduate course introducing the unified approach to V&V is described. The relationship of this research to other efforts toward unification of V&V are discussed.