SP 1.2 Establish the Validation Environment

CMMI-ACQ 1.3

4. Process Areas

4.4. Acquisition Validation

SG 1 Prepare for Validation

SP 1.2 Establish the Validation Environment

Process Area	AVAL
Level	3
Goal	SG 1
Practice	SP 1.2

Establish and maintain the environment needed to support validation.

The requirements for the validation environment are driven by the product or service selected, type of work products (e.g., design, prototype, final version), and validation methods. These selections can yield requirements for the purchase or development of equipment, software, or other resources. The validation environment can include the reuse of existing resources. In this case, arrangements should be made for the use of these resources.

Example types of elements in a validation environment include the following:

· Test tools interfaced with the product being validated (e.g., scope, electronic devices, probes)

· Temporary embedded test software

· Recording tools for dump or further analysis and replay

· Simulated subsystems or components (e.g., software, electronics, mechanics)

· Simulated interfaced systems (e.g., a dummy warship for testing a naval radar)

· Real interfaced systems (e.g., aircraft for testing a radar with trajectory tracking facilities)

· Facilities and customer supplied products

· Skilled people to operate or use all the preceding elements

· Dedicated computing or network test environment (e.g., pseudo-operational telecommunications network test bed or facility with actual trunks, switches, and systems established for realistic integration and validation trials)

Early selection of products or product components to be validated, work products to be used in validation, and validation methods is needed to ensure that the validation environment will be available when necessary.

The validation environment should be carefully controlled to provide for replication, results analysis, and revalidation of problem areas.

Example Work Products

1. Validation environment

Subpractices

1. Identify requirements for the validation environment.

2. Identify customer supplied products.

3. Identify validation equipment and tools.

4. Identify validation resources that are available for reuse and modification.

5. Plan the availability of resources in detail.

Keywords customer ; DAR ; development ; establish and maintain ; example work product ; product ; product component ; prototype ; requirement ; service ; subpractice ; validation ; work product