(My) CSSLP Notes – Software acceptance

Note: This notes were strongly inspired by the following books: CSSLP Certification All in one and Official (ISC)2 Guide to the CSSLP CBK, Second Edition

CSSLP-logoSoftware acceptance is the life cycle process of officially or formally accepting new or modified software components, which when integrated form the information system.

Pre-Release activities:

  • completion criteria – are all the functional and security requirements completed as expected.
  • change management – is there a process in place to handle change requests.
  • approval to deploy/release – have all of the required authorities sign off.
  • risk acceptance and exception policy – is the residual risk acceptable or tracked as an exception.
  • documentation – are all the necessary documentation in place.

Post-Release activities:

  • validation & verification (V&V) – Validation means that the software meets the specified user requirements.  Verification describes proper software construction. V&V is not an ad hoc process but it is a very structured and systematic approach to evaluate the software technical functionality. The evaluation can be divided in two main activities:
    • reviews
      • design (review).
      • code (review).
    • testing
      • error detection (tests).
      • acceptance (tests).
      • independent third party (tests).
  • certification and accreditation – Certification is the technical verification of the software functional and assurance level. Accreditation is management’s formal acceptance of the system after an understanding of the risks to that system.