Verification and Validation in the Recommended Practice for Integrated Software-Dependent Systems

Det Norske Veritas is a classification society providing standards in the Maritime and Oil&Gas industries. In these industries, Information Technology (IT) usage is increasing rapidly, especially for onboard embedded automation systems, such as propulsion, navigation, steering, power management systems, life support and entertainment systems. The industry needs an increasing level of confidence to keep up with the increasing use of complex integrated software-dependent systems. The new optional process model, the Recommended Practice for Integrated Software-Dependent Systems (RP ISDS), provides practical guidance and requirements for the verification and validation disciplines, particularly in testing where the coverage is dependant of the confidence level expected by the future owner and operator of the system. In complement to traditional process models, such as CMMI and SPICE, the RP ISDS clarifies the breakdown of the system verification and validation activities to be performed by the various stakeholders, simplifying and organizing the communication expectations between the various roles & responsibilities.