The master test plan provides the highest level description of verification and validation efforts and drives the testing at various levels. General project information is used to develop the master test plan. The following topics must be addressed before planning:

• Project identification
• Plan goals
• Summary of verification and validation efforts
• Responsibilities conveyed with the plan
• Software to be verified and validated
• Identification of changes to organization standards

Verification and validation planning may be broken down into the following steps:

• Identify the V & V scope
• Establish specific objectives from the general project scope
• Analyse the project input prior to selecting V\&V tools and techniques
• Select tools and techniques
• Develop the software verification and validation plan (SVVP)

Discussed below are the major activities of V&V planning.

Master Schedule

• Summarizes various V&V tasks and their relationship to the overall project
• Describes the project life cycle and project milestones including completion dates
• Summarizes the schedule of V&V tasks and how verification and validation results provide feedback to the development process to support overall project management functions
• Defines an orderly flow of material between project activities and V&V tasks; use reference to PERT, CPM, and Gantt charts to define the relationship between various activities.

Resource Summary

This activity summarizes the resources needed to perform V&V tasks, including staffing, facilities, tools, finances, and special procedural requirements such as security, access rights, and documentation control. In this activity, , - Use graphs and tables to present resource utilization - Include equipment and laboratory resources required - Summarize the purpose and cost of hardware and software tools to be employed - Take all resources into account and allow, for additional time and money to cope with contingencies.

Responsibilities

Identify the organization responsible for performing V&V tasks. There are two levels of responsibilities general responsibilities assigned to different organizations and specific responsibilities for the V&V tasks to be performed, assigned to individuals. General responsibilities should be supplemented with specific responsibility for each task in the V&V plan.

Tools, Techniques, and Methodology

Identify the special software tools, techniques, and methodologies to be employed by the V&V tea The purpose of each should be defined and plans for the acquisition, training, support, and qualification of each should be described. This section may be in a narrative or graphic format. A separate tool plan may be developed for software tool acquisition, development, or modification. In this case, a separate tool plan section may be added to the plan.