Informal methods of validation and verification

In some cases, informal methods offer the convenience of quick testing to see if a model can be validated.

Teams of experts, developers, and testers will thoroughly scan the content (algorithms, programming code, documents, equations) in the original conceptual model and compare with the appropriate counterpart to verify how closely the executable model matches.

If an audit trail is in place, any error in the model should be able to be traced back to the original source to easily find and make corrections.

[citation needed] A walkthrough is a scheduled meeting with the author in charge of the model or documents that are set to be reviewed.

Prior to the official meeting the author will review the document or model for any potential cosmetic errors.

The audience will gather any questions or concerns based on their expertise in the field as well as their knowledge of the system.

In addition to leading the structure of the meeting, the facilitator takes notes of remaining issues to be reanalyzed later.

With these results actions are taken to address the points made, deficiencies are handled, and recommendations are taken into consideration.

[4][6] Desk checking consists of the author carefully stepping through the model in an attempt to catch any inconsistencies.

Desk checking is the least formal of the informal methods discussed, but is often a good first line of defense in catching errors, and attempting to verify and validate the model.

[3][7] Any programmer who develops software participates in the informal method of verification known as desk checking.

[citation needed] The Turing test is an informal validation method that was developed by the English mathematician Alan Turing in the 1950s, which at its roots is a specialized form of face validation because humans can be seen as "experts" on being able to analyze how other humans will respond in a given situation.