An Acquisition Process Area at Maturity Level 3

The purpose of Acquisition Validation (AVAL) is to demonstrate that an acquired product or service fulfills its intended use when placed in its intended environment.

Validation demonstrates that the acquired product or service, as provided, will fulfill its intended use. In other words, validation ensures that the acquired product or service meets stakeholders’ needs and customer requirements.

Validation activities are performed early and incrementally throughout the project lifecycle. These activities can be applied to all aspects of the product and its components in any of their intended environments, such as operations, training, manufacturing, maintenance, and support services. (Throughout the process areas, where we use the phrase product and product component, the intended meaning encompasses services and their components.)

The product or product components that are selected to be validated by the acquirer vary depending on project attributes. Methods used to conduct validation also can be applied to selected acquirer work products (e.g., customer requirements) and supplier deliverables (e.g., prototypes, simulations, and demonstrations). Method selection is based on which methods best predict how well the acquired product or service will satisfy stakeholder needs.

Whenever possible, validation should be conducted using the product or product component operating in its intended environment. Either the entire environment or part of it can be used.

When validation issues are identified, these issues are referred to processes associated with the Acquisition Requirements Development or Project Monitoring and Control process areas for resolution.

The specific practices of this process area build on each other in the following way:

·         The Select Products for Validation specific practice enables the identification of the product or product component to be validated and methods to be used to perform the validation.

·         The Establish the Validation Environment specific practice enables the determination of the environment to be used to carry out the validation.

·         The Establish Validation Procedures and Criteria specific practice enables the development of validation procedures and criteria that are aligned with the characteristics of selected products, customer constraints on validation, methods, and the validation environment.

·         The Perform Validation specific practice enables the performance of validation according to methods, procedures, and criteria.

·         The Analyze Validation Results specific practice enables the analysis of validation results against criteria.

Refer to the Acquisition Requirements Development process area for more information about requirements validation.

Refer to the Agreement Management process area for more information about accepting the acquired product or service.

Refer to the Acquisition Technical Management process area for more information about evaluating supplier work products.

Specific Goal and Practice Summary

SG 1 Prepare for Validation

SP 1.1       Select Products for Validation

SP 1.2       Establish the Validation Environment

SP 1.3       Establish Validation Procedures and Criteria

SG 2 Validate Selected Products and Product Components

SP 2.1       Perform Validation

SP 2.2       Analyze Validation Results