In-Process Validation (glossary)
The practice of routinely getting user approval to guide each elaboration of the baseline. This technique keeps the user involved and committed to the incremental elaboration of the approach and the incremental verification results. (Mooz, Forsberg, and Cotterman 2003,198)
Sources
Mooz, H., K. Forsberg, H. Cotterman. 2003. Communicating Project Management. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
Discussion
One reason that small software development projects, using Agile development principles, work so well is that the customer is embedded into the team. Agile teams are usually limited to a maximum of 20 people (although there are instances of teams of teams that have hundreds of people involved and working well). The in-process validation concept can effectively capture the customer involvement as a very positive force on large projects.