Verification is a quality assurance process or technique applied by Project Management whereby an evaluation of a component, product or service is completed at the end of a phase or project to verify or confirm that it satisfies all of the regulations or specification requirements. Verification can take place during production or development, and is generally an internal process. In contrast, validation is the process by which the Project Management establishes that the component, product or service meets the needs of the intended end-user or customer. It can be said that validation assures that the correct component, product or service was created, and verification assures that it was built or produced correctly. Building the correct component speaks to end-users needs, while doing it correctly checks that the actual development process was followed correctly. In some applications, requirements are such that it is necessary to have written requirements for verification and validation, as well as formal protocols for determining compliance. Project Management effectively implementing a verification/validation process can save the producer from the financial burden of expensive recall campaigns, costly product rework, and unexpected delays in product releases.
This term is defined in the 3rd and the 4th edition of the PMBOK.