Assessing IV & V benefits using simulation

There is a critical need for cost effective independent verification and validation (IV & V). The goal of this research is to create a flexible tool that NASA IV & V can use to quantitatively assess the economic benefit of performing IV & V on NASA software development projects and to optimize that benefit across alternative IV & V plans. The tool is based on extensive research into software process simulation models (SPSMs) conducted at the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) by Watts Humphrey and Marc Kellner (1989), and Bill Curtis and others (1992). SPSMs can be used to quantify the costs and benefits associated with NASA IV & V practices enabling management to effectively allocate scarce resources for IV & V activities. In addition, SPSMs facilitate the IV & V of NASA software development processes by enabling checks and performance assessments.