A Practical Approach to Model Validation

Although a lot of research has been conducted on verification, validation, and accreditation (VV and A) methods, it is still a challenging task to assess the credibility of a model. The simulation community suggests some standards and techniques to reach the goal, but they face various difficulties in practical projects, such as quantitative credibility aggregation, partial credibility aggregation, model defect tracing, etc. It is clear that model validation has to bring a confirmed, traceable conclusion of model credibility, which precisely reflects the similarity between the model and the corresponding real-world object. In order to implement a convincing model validation, some concepts have to be clarified and some techniques have to be applied. This chapter focuses on a lifecycle approach of model validation. Some methods are introduced and explained, including factor space building, similarity analysis, result unification, model defect tracing, etc. We discuss the implications of the concepts in the field of model validation.