Verification, It Is All About Intent

A verification engineer often starts with the datasheet or specification of a device (in a language like English) and creates a set of test cases using a verification strategy to verify that the device conforms to the spec. The verification strategy is a set of guidelines that ensure that the test cases cover all of the test space to the required degree of completion.

Depending on the abstraction level at which a system is modeled, a system model captures the intended functionality and behavior of a system as well as a lot of "noise" or the implementation details.

The right abstraction level for a system model would minimize the amount of noise, that is the model would capture the functionality of the system without capturing how the functionality is realized.

A good system model that formally captures intent can be used with automated verification tools to explore and generate test cases automatically with the help of a verification strategy.

The verification engineer can then focus on creating and formally describing a better verification strategy, instead of spending much time on enumerating all test cases.

To summarize, a good model that captures the intent of the designer can be used to automate test generation and therefore allow verification engineers to focus on what they do best - creating innovative verification strategies that maximize test coverage.