Verification and validation software

The MathWorks has announced the availability of Simulink Verification and Validation, a product that enables system designers and test engineers to perform continuous testing and verification throughout the development process.

With Simulink Verification and Validation, engineers can use Model-Based Design to produce a validated executable specification. Through formal testing of systems and algorithms during the modelling and simulation phase, errors can be identified earlier, when they are easier and less costly to fix.

Simulink Verification and Validation simplifies the system development workflow by allowing users to rapidly link requirements to designs and test cases and perform coverage analysis on Simulink models. Engineers can ensure that designs are validated earlier in the development process, by identifying inadequate requirements and exposing unnecessary constructs and design flaws at the model level.

Simulink Verification and Validation also provides engineers with the ability to link their requirements to formal requirements management systems such as Telelogic's Doors, or to Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, or HTML-formatted files, and then navigate back and forth between the requirements and model. Additionally, users can generate coverage reports in order to view untested design elements. These reports provide industry standard metrics including RTCA/DO-178B modified condition/decision coverage (MC/DC) and are fully integrated with Simulink. Metrics can also be displayed in the model, allowing users to quickly traverse the model for missing coverage and navigate to the associated requirements.

In addition to enabling requirements-based design and test of models, Simulink Verification and Validation lets users continue verifying designs throughout the development process. Using Real-Time Workshop Embedded Coder, engineers can include requirement descriptions as comments in the embedded code generated from the validated model. This provides a full traceability path from requirements to model to code and automates the painstaking manual traceability analysis often required for high-integrity software development.