Verification Technology Potential with Different Modeling and Simulation Development and Implementation Paradigms

摘要

An investigation of the history of verification and validation (V&V) in modeling and simulation (M&S) indicates that validity has been interpreted in different ways based on the context and the types of problems being solved. That is, advances in modeling paradigms, methodologies, tools, and technologies had considerable impact on the way validation is perceived. The shift from an accuracy point of view to a quality-centric approach in model V&V is a recent indicator of this trend. The modeling artifacts produced by a certain paradigm usually depict specific characteristics unique to that paradigm such that widely adopted conventional methods do not properly scale or apply. This paper introduces a generic simulation lifecycle and discusses the V&V processes in the context of the life cycle of a simulation study. Key standards, practices, and processes for V&V of software-intensive models are reviewed. Special emphasis is given to major V&V issues as well as emergent challenges due to a variety of modern simulation implementation paradigms and development methodologies. The issues include recognizing and avoiding some of the myths of simulation model V&V to focus on essential challenges as opposed to accidentally perceived problems. Building on the identified issues and challenges with regard to the emerging prominent trends in model development, a set of potential research directions are identified and discussed.