Verification
Definition
Confirmation that a method's performance, when implemented locally, meets the validated specifications. Less work than validation; required when a lab adopts a published or standard method.
- Contrast
- Validation, which establishes a new or modified method's performance
- Effort
- Substantially less work than full validation
- Trigger
- Adopting a published or standard method without modification
- Standard
- Required practice under ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation
Common questions
How does verification differ from validation in a forensic lab?+
Validation establishes the performance parameters of a new or modified method from scratch, while verification confirms that an already validated, published method performs to its stated specifications when run on the local instrumentation and staff.
When is verification alone sufficient?+
It is sufficient when a lab adopts an existing standard or fully validated method unchanged; any modification to reagents, instruments, or procedure pushes the lab back into full validation territory.
Related terms
- Accreditation
- Formal recognition by a standards body (such as UKAS in the UK, A2LA in the US, or NABL in India) that a...
- Calibration
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- ISO 9001
- The international standard for quality management systems published by the International Organization for Standardization. Certification means the organisation has documented and implemented...
- ISO/IEC 17025:2017
- The international standard specifying general requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories. Covers management (document control, non-conforming work, audits) and...
- NABL
- National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories, a constituent board of the Quality Council of India. It is the sole accrediting...
- Proficiency Testing (PT)
- A quality assurance mechanism in which laboratories analyse blind samples distributed by an external scheme coordinator and have their results compared against...
- Quality Assurance (QA)
- The management system that ensures QC actually happens and stays effective over time: written SOPs, training and competence records, internal audits, document...
- Quality Control (QC)
- The day-to-day activities that verify a single batch of results is reliable: method blanks, certified-reference-material runs, duplicate injections, spike recoveries and control-chart...
- SWGDOC and Other SWGs
- Scientific Working Groups (SWGDOC for questioned documents, SWGDRUG for drugs, SWGSTAIN for bloodstain, SWGFEX for fire and explosion, SWGFAST for fingerprints) that...
- Traceability and Uncertainty
- Metrological traceability is an unbroken chain of calibrations linking a result to a stated reference (CRM, NPL India primary standard, NIST). Measurement...
- Validation
- The process of establishing through systematic testing that a method does what it claims to do, within defined conditions and with a...