Planning Is The Key To VerificationSponsored by: VERISITY

May 26, 2005

Plan Ahead Project management is a matter of planning and execution. In verification quality problems as well as schedule slips can be avoided through application of the old adage, "begin with the end in mind." Good verification plans include detailed goals formulated with measurable metrics, optimal resource usage, and realistic scheduling. Verification managers and their teams certainly try to plan their processes. However, these plans tend to focus on task performance rather than on defining the verification problem independently of its solution. This approach leaves the door wide open to gaps leading to bug escapes, delays in finding and repairing those bugs, and strained resources.How Plans Go Awry Verification plans are often incomplete because teams are too thin. The plan ends up being very inflexible, and there's no way to maintain its relationship with the design project. In other words, it isn't really a plan. The answer is to make the verification plan an executable part of the verification process itself. A plan becomes executable when it's managed through use of a verification processautomation tool. Such a tool generates reports about project status and becomes the basis for analyzing data to determine subsequent steps in an adaptive verification process. When changes in the project are needed, those changes are introduced, tracked, and measured through the updated executable verification plan.

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About the Author

David Maliniak | MWRF Executive Editor

In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.