The Effectiveness and Cost of a V&V Plan – The SQA Model

This chapter presents a comparison of two verification and validating (V&V) plans: standard V&V plan and comprehensive V&V plan. Such a tool enables comparing alternative programs by supplying the expected percentage of errors to be removed in each screening stage, when applying a given V&V plan. The software quality assurance (SQA) model deals with two quantitative aspects of the V&V plan designed for a specific project: total effectiveness of defect removal plan and total cost of defect removal plan. The SQA model is based on three types of data: the distribution of the defects according to their originating phase, the defect removal effectiveness according to the type of SQA activity and development phase, and the cost of defect removal according to the originating development phase and the phase from which it was removed. The SQA model enables calculation of estimates for defect removal effectiveness and costs of proposals in regards to the structure of V&V plans.