WEAG THALES JP11.20 - Final State of the REVVA Methodology

Under the umbrella of the Western European Armament Group's THALES Memorandum of Under-standing, a "Common Framework for Verification, Validation, and Accreditation of Simulations" (nickname "REVVA") was developed and stabilized during the period March 2003 through October 2004. Within the Joint Program between Denmark, France, Italy, Sweden, and The Netherlands, a VV&A methodology was developed, which includes: (1) The REVVA Generic Process, a stand-alone VV&A process, which can be easily linked to numerous types of model devel-opment processes, including such for the development of distributed simulations (e.g., the FEDEP); (2) The concepts of Target of Acceptance (ToA) and Target of Verification and Validation (ToVV), which put a strong emphasis on V&V requirements definition, formalization of V&V planning, and traceability from the individual Items of Evidence ac-quired during V&V implementation up to the intended purpose of model use; (3) The explicit distinction between the properties "correctness" and "validity", which are inherent to a simulation model and its intended use on the one hand, and the processes of "verification" and "validation" to reveal them on the other hand; (4) Hooks for the integration of methods for estimation of uncertainty introduced because of the current inability to prove neither correctness nor va-lidity; (5) A definition of roles, which clearly distinguishes technical and managerial roles and sides from which the actors may come; (6) A demarcation of "worlds" related to or associated with modeling and simulation; And (7) an extensive review of techniques to support the making of a more objective acceptance decision. The ToA and the ToVV are consistent with the documentation requirements defined in the International Test Operations Procedure on V&V (WGE7.2), and the proposed methodology creates a stable framework for activities such as the NATO MSG019/TG016 "VV&A of HLA Federations". This paper presents the building blocks of the REVVA methodology, and motivates the objectives of the follow-on program.