SCSC2003 Abstract S41612
Tailoring Verification, Validation and Accreditation of Models & Simulation Systems: Canadian DND/CF Approach
Tailoring Verification, Validation and Accreditation of Models & Simulation Systems: Canadian DND/CF Approach
Submitting Author: Dr. Orhun Molyer
Abstract:
There are international and NATO standards, or national guidelines for verification, validation and accreditation (VV&A) of models and simulation systems (M&S), which we can employ in M&S applications. However we are to tailor and/or adapt those suggested ways of VV&A with respect to our own requirements. Here, we introduce how we develop our way of VV&A based on the existing and known methods, standards, guidelines, and finally the characteristics of Canadian Department of National Defense, and Canadian Forces.
The journey we have had so far in developing our VV&A process has showed us that the perception of the importance of the VV&A in M&S applications has reached to a satisfactory level among the Defense Planning Staff, and the need has been shifted from “How-To” to “How cost-efficient to”. Consequently, we stated our goal as “to develop a VV&A process that is, (1) tailor-able for any type of application based on risk, (2) user-friendly (i.e., Template-driven, straightforward, comprehensible), (3) supporting and encouraging the reusability of models and simulation systems, (4) cost-efficient, (5) documented and Imposing documentation, (6) open to improvement.
Our M&S product types that are subject to be verified, validated and accredited (1) stand-alone software products that are executable on a single computer system / server; (2) distributed software products that are HLA Federations / DIS applications; and (3) others in which COTS software packages (e.g., Pro Model, MS Excel) and on-paper models are included. These products may be developed from scratch, or legacy that is used as-is or as modified (minor or major).
Our customers who will be the potential users of the VV&A process are in-house developers who develops new M&S products from scratch, and modify legacy M&S products; acquirers who procure COTS M&S products and manage M&S development projects; and users who are to cope with using M&S products as tools to solve their problems in analysis, training, and acquisition domains.
Considering that the majority (app. 90%) of the M&S community who deals with the VV&A and reusability issues in Canadian DND is the users and the acquirers, we focused on the reusability aspect of the M&S applications in our process in the first place. The case in which a legacy M&S product is used as-is is our starting point for our VV&A process development effort.
The viewpoints of the potential users of this process differ in the objective of doing V&V. From developers’ viewpoint, the main objective is to develop the demanded product. In this respect, their main concern is the quality assurance of their product and development process. From acquirers’ viewpoint the main concern is that the conditions in the contract documentation is met. On the other hand, from the user perspective, the main objective is to determine the credibility of a model, in order to accredit it for a particular application. Thus conducting V&V for the purpose of accreditation is different from the purpose of quality assurance [Brade-1] or contract/ project management, and accreditation, that is credibility assessment, can be done only by the owner of the problem / application, which is the user. Throughout this paper, we introduce the process from the users’ point of view, and our focus will be on accreditation.
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