SE Validation Limited

Validation and Verification of Complex and Network-Centric Systems

Introduction

Combined improvements of communication, computer, sensor and actuator technologies give modern system designers unprecedented freedom to build innovative and highly integrated solutions to meet increasingly stringent capability needs. However, the ability to create these systems is rapidly outstripping the system-engineering community's ability to confidently predict their effectiveness or to control or recognise the emergence of unwanted properties. This shortfall and its potential consequences are now beginning to be recognised in parts of the system engineering and military evaluation communities, but are not generally appreciated in the wider engineering community. Thus many project problems are still being attributed to one-off project-specific causes and their systematic nature is being largely ignored.

Framework

The lack of an adequate framework for verifying and validating (V&V) complex systems, capabilities or systems of capabilities will increasingly become a constraint on the development of leading-edge military and commercial solutions. The impact in both military and commercial domains of successful developments in this area is thus potentially very significant. However, verification and validation have traditionally been "hands-on" activities, with the result that there are relatively few people with the right background who relish the difficult task of facing this challenge. SE Validation was formed with this role in mind and brings together a unique blend of capabilities into this area.

Communication

Successful achievement of any non-trivial task requires effective communication between those who understand the problem and the needs of the end users, and those who understand how potential solutions might be realised and have the resources to achieve this. Frequently disappointment in such endeavours can be traced to failures in this communication chain. The more complex and functionally integrated problems and solutions become, the more need there is for systematic sharing of information, knowledge and wisdom amongst the many participants. System engineering has developed increasingly specialised tools to help generate complex solutions, but these tend to reduce communication. There are also no common tools that support team communication about problems, rather than solutions. This is partly because engineers are traditionally at their happiest when discussing points of detail implementation. At SE Validation we are well aware of these problems and have developed, and are developing, techniques to reduce risks.

Example Papers

Jackson Problem Frames in the management of safety requirements British Computer Society's Requirements Engineering Safety Group workshop on Key Challenges in Safety Requirements Engineering Bath, 2002.