Elemental patterns of verification strategies

This paper proposes a set of seven elemental patterns of verification strategies. These patterns can be useful in modeling verification strategies in a wide range of engineered systems. They form the building blocks under which any verification strategy can be modeled. The patterns lead to a fundamental understanding of the interplay between system parameters and verification activities, as well as an understanding of the mechanisms by which verification evidence builds up. For each pattern, we provide a description and a few examples of its application. A few important theoretical properties of the corresponding set of patterns are discussed, such as belief update, inferential properties, and graph disconnection, as well as some practical guidance to be taken into account when applying them to authentic verification problems. These patterns are intended to be a useful tool for researchers, practitioners, and educators, by formalizing the application of Bayesian networks to verification problems, hence facilitating instruction and communication among verification engineers and with researchers from other domains, particularly statisticians and Bayesian analysts.