Software verification: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Verification that software meets requirements}}

'''Software verification''' is a discipline of [[software engineering]], [[programming languages]], and [[theory of computation]] whose goal is to assure that software fully satisfies all the expected requirements.

== Broad scope and classification ==

A broad definition of verification makes it equivalentrelated to [[software testing]]. In that case, there are two fundamental approaches to verification:

* ''Dynamic verification'', also known as [[experimentation]], [[dynamic testing]] or, simply testing. - This is good for finding faults ([[software bugs]]).

* ''Static verification'', also known as [[static code analysis|analysis]] or, [[static code analysis|static testing]] - This is useful for proving the [[Correctness (computer science)|correctness]] of a program. Although it may result in false positives when there are one or more conflicts between the process a software really does and what the static verification assumes it does.

Under the [[ACM Computing Classification System]], software verification topics appear under "Software and its engineering", within "Software creation", whereas [[Program verification]] also appears under [[Theory of computation]] under Semantics and reasoning, Program reasoning.

== Dynamic verification (Test, experimentation) ==

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The aim of software dynamic verification is to find the errors introduced by an activity (for example, having a medical software to analyze bio-chemical data); or by the repetitive performance of one or more activities (such as a stress test for a web server, i.e. check if the current product of the activity is as correct as it was at the beginning of the activity).

== Static verification (Analysis) ecking==

Static verification is the process of checking that software meets requirements by inspecting the code before it runs. For example:

* ''[[Code conventions]] verification''

* ''Bad practices ([[anti-pattern]]) detection''

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== Narrow scope ==

When it is defined more strictly, verification is equivalent only to static testing and it is intended to be applied to artifacts. And, validation (of the whole software product) would be equivalent to dynamic testing and intended to be applied to the running software product (not its artifacts, except requirements). Notice that requirements validation can be performed statically and dynamically (See [[Software verification and validation#Artifact_or_specification_validationArtifact or specification validation|artifact validation]]).

== Comparison with validation ==

{{Main article|Software verification and validation}}

Software verification is often confused with software validation. The difference between [[Verification and validation (software)|''verification'' and ''validation'']]:

* Software ''verification'' asks the question, "Are we building the product right?"; that is, does the software conform to its specifications? (As a house conforms to its blueprints.)

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==See also==

{{Portal|Software Testing}}

* [[Verification and validation (software)]]

* [[Runtime verification]]

* [[Hardware verification]]

* [[Formal verification]]

== References ==