Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V)

It is widely acknowledged that only a fraction of large IT projects in both the federal and private sectors are completed on time, on budget, and/or adequately meet desired end user needs.

Many large IT projects fall flat due to insufficiencies in one or both of two critical initial phases: discovery and design. Information missed or incorrectly documented in either of these two phases can spell disaster for a project and, without Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V), the problems may not be identified until well after project launch and the expenditure of substantial resources that cannot be recovered.

In Fiscal Year 2021, the federal government’s IT spend was nearly $91 billion. And while estimates vary by source and year, it is widely acknowledged that only a fraction of large IT projects in both the federal and private sectors are completed on time, on budget, and/or adequately meet desired end user needs. Some estimates have put the partial or complete failure rate at nearly 85 percent.

BINARC’s Independent Verification and Validation practice is comprised of Microsoft-Certified SMEs adept at evaluating the approach, schedule, data, and other key elements of federal and private sector transitions. We plan, track, and reconcile your Requirements Traceability Matrices (RTMs), review and evaluate deliverables, and support User Acceptance Testing (UAT).

IV&V and project management are often mistaken for the same discipline, but it is important to understand the distinction. While project management professionals focus on foundational elements of the project (e.g. cost, schedule, etc.), IV&V professionals operate at a much more granular level. IV&V empowers business owners with the ability to adjust course and mitigate issues before they become risks to mission-critical operations.

BINARC’s IV&V team does not play the role of “auditor”. Whereas auditors report on activities after the fact (sometimes with a “gotcha” mentality), we inform you of issues and concerns—and offer potential solutions—in real time, before mission-critical operations fail.

Whether you are migrating to the cloud, implementing new cybersecurity initiatives, or launching a large data migration project, we can provide continuous, real-time oversight of your entire systems implementation lifecycle to lower costs, shorten project schedules, avoid pitfalls, and dramatically boost your chance of success.

For more, see our blog, Six Ways Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Helps Protect Your IT Investments.