tucumseh (referring to my #7900):
Not sure what you're getting at here. If you aren't are familiar with the policy document, it is 49 pages long. If you are familiar with it, what part do you want me to quote?
My point is that the paragraph you quoted (I've never seen the document it comes from) does not require/mandate/regulate independent V&V (verification & validation). All it does is say that
if (a big if!) independent V&V is required then access to the software must be secured by the MoD ... which is kind of obvious cos. how else is independent V&V on the software going to be carried out unless access to the software is secured.
Now, having said that, during my low-level involvement in MoD aviation software safety in the 90s (Chugalug2 - specifically around 1994-1998), I became aware of what seemed to be a working policy that safety-related aviation software should be submitted to independent V&V. I specify "aviation" because that's all I worked on and all I knew about - I don't know if that policy spread wider or not. And I can only refer to the (supposed) policy in these terms because I have no idea whether it was ever enshrined in formal regulation or not (I was "low-level").
FWIW, I am interested in whether there was any formal regulation (aviation-specific or across the board) which required MoD to submit safety-related software to independent V&V in the 90s. A piece of regulation that merely says, if you want to do independent V&V then you have to secure access to the software is of much less interest to me, both because it doesn't actually require the independent V&V and because it seems pretty nugatory.
Chugalug2:
It seems to me that de facto policy did not lead to de facto observance of the Regulations, but that is something that you [Squidlord] have said is not strictly necessary, isn't it?
No, it isn't (I'm left wondering why Chugalug2 would put such a spin on what I actually did write).
I'm also not sure what Chugalug2's general point is. Why would a de facto MoD policy (whether I am right about its existence or not) of facilitating independent V&V for aviation software have anything to do with whether or not safety regulation in general was observed or not?