Verification and Validation Approaches for Model-based Software Engineering

Model-based Software Engineering (MBSwE) and the use of automatic code generation has become popular for safety-critical aerospace applications. For these applications, verification and validation (V&V) is of utmost importance. With models as another layer of artifacts, however, V&V can become more complex in general, as V&V tasks can be carried out at the model level or at the code level. In this short paper, we present a V&V architecture specifically designed for MBSwE, which reflects the interrelationships between the different levels, tasks and tools, and which aims to provide a clear picture on the V&V approaches for MBSwE. We illustrate the architecture with a detailed analysis of two NASA missions and discuss their approaches to model use and understanding, automatic code generation, V&V, and model synchronization.