Enhancing Interoperability Through Standard Procedures for Recording

Decision makers need confidence that the models and simulations they use are fit to support their decision making process, such that their decisions are useful to their specific project or program. It is entirely possible and even quite likely, that individual models and simulations or those expressly for federate use are already available somewhere in the world. Users of these models, simulations or federates need to appreciate the Validation and Verification (V&V) effort already applied to the product, and to understand the level of impact originally anticipated for the product use. This effort can be difficult to represent and understand when use and re-use are required, and as such, time and further effort can be wasted in duplicating and discussing the recorded information about a product of interest. In mitigation to this, a standard approach to recording and documenting V&V information is introduced. The impact level of the original use is also a useful data item in understanding the V&V effort likely to have been exercised on the product. This information is usually lost or not even recorded, and can leave subsequent users with some uncertainty about the suitability of the product for their purpose.