Verification and validation (V&V) are distinct processes. Verification ensures a product meets its specified requirements (“Are you building it right?”). Validation ensures the product meets the user’s actual needs and intended use (“Are you building the right thing?”). They are complementary activities within quality management, often performed sequentially or in parallel to ensure both correctness and usefulness. Verification against written requirements also exposes defects that a team might otherwise defend by saying it’s not a bug it’s a feature, whose meaning is simply that an unwanted behavior is relabeled as intended. The it’s not a bug it’s a feature meaning is a reminder that requirements must be explicit.
