Validate Software - Looking for a way to validate software written by a vendor

Hello,
Looking for a way to validate software written by a vendor outside our company.
Any ideas or standards? Any links or comments?
Thanks

[Marc]

This would depend upon the application. We would need more detailed info to comment.

[Atul Khandekar]

Are you asking about Software Quality Assurance of a Quality Assurance Software?

I develop software in Quality esp. for SPC / MSA. I was asked by a few of my clients about validation of my software. I do it periodically by entering published data ( eg. MSA examples in QS manuals) into the software and check that every time the results tally with published results. (Though i dont know why someone would feel that 2+2 is 4 today but might be 5 tomorrow . Anyway, i have to prove that my software always outputs 4 !)

- Atul

[Bubba]

In order to effectively validate the software, you need to first come up with detailed functional specifications on what you, as the end user, expect from the software. Once you have completed that, you basically just need to challenge each of those functional specifications to ensure that you are indeed getting what you expect from your software. Don't forget to include different users and/or different computer systems where appropriate to fully challenge the functionality.

[Atul Khandekar]

Is this a Standard Software (off-the-shelf) product or something
developed specifically for you?