Documentation Standards Use Cases, Validation and Traceability Validation Validation is the process that assures that the product built is the one that is needed by the customer.
Verification is the process that assures that the product is bug-free.
Validation is the harder process. The major tools for validation are prototyping and use cases. The prototype shows the user what you are proposing in a very concrete way. A picture is worth a thousand words. Prototyping also helps the software developer to better understand the user needs and the product being developed.