Document: NUREG-0800
Document ID: 4f141c71-35ca-4353-9047-a13efe6d56b7
Document Type: srp
Title: Revision 6 - August 2016
Source: NUREG-0800
Source URL: https://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1601/ML16019A308.pdf
Revision Date: 2023-06
Chapter: 7
Section ID: 7
CFR Part: 
CFR Title: 

Content:
e independence of the V&V organization. The V&V team should be independent in management, schedule and finance (per RG 1.168). The reviewer should check that the V&V team is independent. V&V personnel should not be subject to scheduling constraints or to pressure from the software designers or project managers for reports or review effort, and the V&V team should report to a level of management which is not exerting direct pressure for a favorable V&V report. The staff reviewer should determine if the V&V effort is sufficiently independent to adequately perform the tasks without bowing to schedule and financial pressure. A second important assessment the staff reviewer should make is on the number and quality of the V&V personnel. There is no specific requirement for the number of V&V personnel, but as an industry rule of thumb, it takes as much effort for a good V&V process as is required for the original design effort. This would indicate that if the V&V team is to keep up with the design team, there should be rough parity between the two groups in the number and skills of the personnel assigned. If the design group significantly outnumbers the V&V group, either the V&V effort will fall behind, or the V&V effort will not perform all the items required. Since there is no numeric requirement, this would be an indication to the staff reviewer to look closely at the outputs from the V&V team to see if the V&V quality is acceptable, or if some functions are not being performed. The quality of the V&V personnel is also important. If a V&V engineer is to judge the output of a software design engineer, the V&V engineer should be qualified to understand the process, the technology, and the software. If the V&V engineer is not qualified, the V&V effort may not be effective. The reviewer can either ask for the qualifications and resumes of the V&V personnel, or if sufficiently experienced, interview the V&V personnel to gauge their knowledge and experience. The reviewer