Planning for verification, validation, and accreditation of modeling and simulation applications

A comprehensive and detailed verification, validation and accreditation (VV&A) plan and its proper execution are crucially important for the successful accreditation of a modeling and simulation (M&S) application. We provide guidance in developing and executing such a plan throughout the entire M&S application development life cycle. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is the largest sponsor and user of modeling and simulation applications in the world. DoD uses many different types of M&S applications, consisting of a combination of software, hardware, and humanware, under diverse objectives including acquisition, analysis and training.