What is the Difference Between Verification and Validation?

Which of the following is an example of software validation?

A. Doing a walkthrough with a user to evaluate whether a use case matches that user's actual needs.

B. Reviewing the software code against the detailed design to ensure the code is complete.

C. Performing integration testing to ensure that the interface between software components matches the architecture.

D. Executing black-box test cases on the as-built software to determine if the specified requirements are met.

For more information on the difference between verification and validation, watch this quick video above.

The correct answer is A. - Doing a walkthrough with a user to evaluate whether a use case matches that user's actual needs. This is an example of validation because it is evaluating whether the stakeholder requirements, as specified in the use case, match the intended use of the system and the stakeholder needs.

B. is incorrect because reviewing the code against the detailed is verification.

C. is incorrect because integration testing against the architecture is verification.

D. is incorrect since the black-box testing was done to determine if the specified requirements were being met, that is still verification because it is looking back to the requirements specification and not to the intended use.