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National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Office of Inspector General
Washington, D.C. 20546

April 15, 2003

RELEASE 2003-031: INDEPENDENT VERIFICATION AND VALIDATION OF SOFTWARE

The audit report "Independent Verification and Validation of
Software" (IG-03-011) has been posted to the NASA Office of Inspector 
General Web site at:
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/oig/hq/ig-03-011.pdf
    
Independent verification and validation (IV&V) is a critical 
management control for minimizing the risk of software-related 
catastrophic mission failure.  Verification ensures that the software 
product complies with specifications, while validation ensures that a 
software system will perform as expected under operational
conditions.  The NASA IV&V Facility in Fairmont, West Virginia, is a
technically independent organization that helps to ensure that
software verification and validation activities are unbiased and
based on objective evidence.

Results of Audit

We found that NASA had not effectively ensured that all applicable 
software development projects were assessed to determine their 
appropriate level of IV&V.  Specifically, NASA did not provide the
IV&V Facility a complete list of all applicable software development
projects to enable the Facility to identify projects for which IV&V 
assessment criteria should be applied and, in turn, advise the 
cognizant project managers to apply the criteria to those projects.  
As a result of this condition, the safety, quality, and reliability
of some of the Agency's programs and projects, including
mission-critical programs and projects, could be compromised.

Recommendations

We recommended that NASA establish a process that provides the IV&V 
Facility, on a recurring basis, a complete and accurate list of the 
Agency's programs and projects.  We also recommended that NASA verify 
that the IV&V Facility initiates appropriate actions to ensure that 
the programs and projects identified on the list comply with the 
Agency's software IV&V policy.

Management's Response

Management concurred with the intent of the recommendations and 
initiated corrective actions.  We consider management's planned or 
implemented actions responsive.

To comment on this report, please send e-mail to
igrelease{at}hq.nasa.gov 
    
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