TABLE OF CONTENTS Up to this point we have been viewing the verification process from the micro perspective. Before proceeding to amplify on that perspective in relation to specific methods and techniques, let us step back and consider the verification process from a macro perspective. There are planning activities appropriately done from the bottom up and those best done from the top down. In Chapter 2.1 we implied that we should plan the whole program applying a top-down functional decomposition process. Figure 1.2-5 provided a life cycle functional flow diagram, and the intent was to decompose each block in that diagram to encourage concurrent development and optimization of product and process together. Function F44 of that diagram is titled "Grand systems verification," and in this chapter methods for decomposing this function from the top down will be offered. In subsequent chapters, we will fill in the details from the bottom up.
The top-down process starts with the availability of verification traceability matrices in the available specifications, assembles the content of the union of all of those matrices into a programwide verification compliance matrix, and ends with the completion of the verification task identification work that tells what all of the verification tasks are and who is responsible for each. At this point all of these responsible persons can be put to work building their plans and procedures in accordance with a schedule from the bottom up. In this chapter we will build a set of generic process diagrams...
