This post focuses on improving project success through building verification and validation activities into your project plan. First, some real definitions:

Verification is making sure that all deliverables are correctly completed. This includes having a formal approach to making sure that all the best practices for product and project processes are followed. Best practices dump the best brains of the organization into checklists to help all project teams have predictable and repeatable success.

Validation creates early project dialogs about whether the final solution will satisfy the business need for which the product was launched. Business needs include increased revenue, increased productivity, or decreased cycle time of the business solution. These are always good in any project, or in any country.

Wow.  Validation adds a lot of work to the schedule. Remember the results when validation wasn’t done. It is painful to remember projects that we delivered but are not used by the customers. . . . . . .For lots of reasons. . . . . .We may not have added activities that made sure the users were getting what they were getting. . . . . .Or we may have been forced to deliver the project without regard for user requirements. Either way, it’s a frustrating project experience. Here are some tips that can improve project acceptance and business goal attainment by including some early project V&V activities.

Key Verification and Validation Tips

V&V is not just about software: IT projects are disruptive. They impact how users get their work done. Organizations are also resistant to change. Projects, by definition, cause change. So verification and validation coordination needs to occur not just in developing the software product but also in the areas that the project impacts the users. Include V&V activities in all these areas:

- Software development project work
- Organization change management initiatives
- Project impacts on business process flows

V&V is not just testing: Verification and validation activities aren’t only about testing. They happen throughout the product life cycle.

Life Cycle Phase	Life Cycle Phase Supporting V&V Activities
Portfolio Project Selection	Making sure the business case has specific and measurable success criteria. You will use these criteria to document how the project satisfies users and business needs. Think as if you were creating a press release for your project release. What would you say?
Requirements	Holding customer reviews to make sure you captured all their requirements clearly, completely, concisely, and that there are no conflicting requirements.
Design	Having peer reviews to ensure the correctness of the solution.
Construction	Documenting acceptance criteria for services or products delivered by outsourcing partners
Test	Closing with acceptance tests that demonstrate the quality of the solution.
Deliver	Beginning to measure the business case criteria.

This list is not just about testing. It covers all phases of the product life cycle.

V&V can not be outsourced: Vendors and contractors are held accountable for deliverables. The acquiring organization is accountable for stating the acceptance criteria of those deliverables. V&V is not solely a vendor responsibility. Your project is still responsible for contractually specifying how the vendor will assure that they are building the product correctly and that the product will satisfy all the acceptance criteria e.g., make you happy.

But there are challenges in stating the acceptance criteria well. You may be outsourcing since you no longer have the resources or the expertise to create those deliverables. You might be using objective or performance based contracts e.g. stating objectives of the deliverables only and not the what requirements are or the how the requirements will be implemented. Still performance based contracts still need to specify what performance should look like. Otherwise vendor surprises can be ugly and expensive.

Think about your project.
         -Do you have V&V activities in the software development, organizational change management and
          business process improvement areas?
         -Do you have V&V activities in all phases of the product life cycle?
         -Does your project proactively drive V&V activities; both internally and with your outsource partners.
If not, pick one of these areas to improve your project practices and reduce requirements-related defects on your project.

Rosemary Hossenlopp, PMP, MBA is a Silicon Valley based IT professional that works on improving project results for time-starved project teams . When she is not working on projects or blogging about them, she promotes ISSIG visibility but being a Region 7 Ambassador. More tips on project success are available at http:www.PMPerspectives.com.