This is a particularly good paper. It presents with much clarity the state of the art of the software life cycle, its phases, and its subphases. A complete survey is presented concerning validation, verification, and testing of software. The status of the tooling is determined according to its current usage and the foreseeable research progress.

Three approaches for obtaining a deliverable software end product of “high quality” are depicted: (1) traditional and nontraditional software testing, (2) validation and verification during noncoding phases, and (3) integrated support environment.

The conclusion is a sound one. The author states that “progress in validation and verification of software will not be achieved by research into these topics per se.” He goes on to state that “more research . . . is needed into the nature of the development process.”

This paper is so thorough that it should be recommended to any person whose job deals with management, quality, testing, or development of any type of software product. It invites the reader to think about research on the software development process and on software education.