Over the last several years, we have observed increases in project failures due to disconnects between client requirements and solutions delivered by contractors.  This has lead to loss of productivity and increase in project time and cost.  Issues can range from conflicting objectives from different functional groups within an organization to information disconnect between the organization and contracting firm.  Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) helps ensures successful delivery of key deliverables of mission-critical projects by decreasing risk.

IV&V a key element of risk management

IV&V is an iterative process that looks at the financial, managerial and technical procedures performed during a project, independent of the project team to provide key stakeholders with an assessment of the project.  IV&V in the past has been vital      for providing credible accounts of work performed by external groups, but recently IV&V has been important in looking at an organization’s internal processes as a way to provide credible account to external groups.

The independent element of the assessment removes conflict of interest between the parties and ensures an unbiased audit of the project deliverables.  Management independence places meeting predefined deliverables and project milestones on top of the agenda, limiting scope creep and mitigating schedule risk.  Being intimately involved with the project can also cause a project manager to lose the big picture, causing the project to fail before a project manager becomes aware of the issues.  Through the audit process, the audit result helps reduce project risk by identifying risks early in the project and mitigating these risks through recommendations to management based on industry standards and best practices.

Verification is the process of evaluating project components to determine if the deliverables of project phase satisfies the requirements to move to the next phase of the project.  Taking an iterative approach to the verification process ensures that the deliverable is complete and consistent in accordance to project goals to move to the next phase of the project.  This processes is repeated through the requirements development, design, implementation and testing phases of the project plan.  Verification of the work completed by contractors help reduce the level of defects through early detection of flaws in the project leading to less time needed to correct the defect.  Reduction in defects reduces the total project cost and increases project value to the organization.  According to the Technical Report RADC-TR-81-145 by JW Radatz, the cost savings as a result of IV&V work translates to a savings of 92% - 180% of the IV&V costs.

The validation process of IV&V provides an independent audit of the deliverables of the project which provides assurance to both internal and external stakeholders on the progress of the project.  Key data is benchmarked with industry standards and project goals to measure the performance of the project throughout the project lifecycle.  The validation process empowers the organization by providing traceability to the work that was completed by the contractor.  The traceability of IV&V through the validation process compels contractors to get the job done right and provides accountability for their work.

tieBridge’s IV&V Methodology reduces Project Risk

tieBridge's consulting practice focuses on supporting the planning, management, quality assurance, and IV&V of the information technology portfolio of public sector IT organizations. 

IV&V delivers value and reduces project risk by increasing the chances of project success. tieBridge’s IV&V methodology can be employed throughout any stage of the project lifecycle. By providing independent monitoring and oversight to the procurement process and providing assistance in project vendor selection, the IV&V process can be beneficial at the initiation stages of a project and it can continue to be beneficial once a project has commenced, providing oversight to the project management processes as well as quality assurance of the deliverables and work products produced at various stages of the project.  tieBridge recognizes that effective IV&V requires the orchestration of a strong IV&V methodology along with deep technical expertise, domain knowledge, and project management experience.  tieBridge’s experienced staff provides this support.

tieBridge’s IV&V Management Framework has been developed to ensure that adequate controls are applied to the IV&V process.  The figure below describes tieBridge’s IV&V management framework:

The initiation stage is a one-time effort and consists of the following activities:

a. Develop an IV&V Project Charter

The fundamental objective of the IV&V project-chartering task is to capture and document the goals, objectives and success criteria of the IV&V project as a formally documented charter. The charter will define the role, purpose, mandate, customers, stakeholders, service offerings and success criteria for the IV&V Project.

b. Define IV&V Approach

This task collects current methodology documentation as well as gathers information through  working sessions with the stakeholders and project leaders. Using the charter as input, an IV&V approach is drafted that closes the gaps between the current methodology processes and the desired state of the charter. This task also identifies and assesses roles and responsibilities and the current organization structure, to create a project governance structure.

c. Define Project Management Processes

This task evaluates and defines project management processes that will be utilized and throughout the project. If these processes already exist, they are evaluated for completeness or gaps. Each process should include control mechanisms that make it recognizable when problems begin to occur within the project lifecycle.

d. Evaluate and Select Toolsets

This task inventories the tools and templates that may currently be in use. The inventoried tools are measured against a created tool selection criterion (heavily weighted towards meeting the requirements identified in the IV&V charter). A recommendation is made to the project stakeholders regarding which toolsets should be used for the IV&V function.

 The Assessment, Analysis, and Recommendation cycles occur iteratively throughout the lifecycle of the project being performed. These stages are to provide an unbiased review and assessment of a project s progress to help validate that:

• The project is meeting its desired goals
• The project adheres to internally documented or recognized industry standards and guidelines
• The products or deliverables are of high quality and meet the applicable acceptance criteria

Quality assurance of the IV&V work product occurs during the analysis phase.  This phase is discussed further in the section entitled “Quality Assurance Methodology.”

Our approach utilizes industry-standard software engineering and project management standards.  tieBridge aligns its processes with the Software Engineering Institute’s Capability Maturity Model® (CMM®) to better predict and control quality, schedule, cost, time, and productivity factors in its independent verification & validation (IV&V) methods.

Call to Action

Organizations in the past have been reluctant to conduct IV&V, due to the preconceived notion that IV&V costs are prohibitive.  A full-phase IV&V increases the total lifecycle costs by only 3-4%, but the benefits of IV&V can be 200% or greater through the cost savings of early detection of project issues and mitigating project risks early in the project.  IV&V produces ROI long after project completion through project oversight which results in higher quality documentation and training materials.

As IT infrastructure and organizations becomes increasingly complex, the need for IV&V becomes a necessity to ensure project success.