RACME: A Framework to Support V&V and Certification

Verification and Validation (V&V) processes are largely applied to critical systems, and often imposed by certification needs. Many V&V processes are defined in the state of the art, for different kind of systems and different kinds of dependability requirements. A very large set of techniques and tools have been developed to execute specific tasks within these V&V processes. However, few instruments that guide and support the overall V&V process can be identified in the literature. The RACME (Resiltech Assessment and Certification MEthodology) framework aims at filling this gap. RACME guides the entire V&V process to support the V&V experts, interconnecting the results of the various activities, organizing the relevant inputs and outputs, detecting inconsistencies, and finally offering support to the construction of the documents required (for certification purposes). We present the RACME motivation, specification and the current prototype, finally, we apply our prototype as support to the V&V expert during a long-term project.