A DVP is a test or evaluation technique that is used to ensure that a design is reliable. DVPs help you to verify that product requirements are met. The data collected includes the specific test performed, when and by whom the test was performed, the test result, and whether the test passed or failed. As part of the verification process, product designs must be evaluated to ensure that they effectively meet customer specifications. Thus, DVPs can help you to confirm that product development is moving in the right direction.

DVPs are used with FMEAs. The FMEA determines the aspects of the product that require testing, while DVPs describes the tests to perform to ensure that specified requirements are met. Typically, FMEA failure mode causes help to determine which tests to implement. For example, if the SRAM section of a microprocessor fails due to voltage spikes, you would want to test that surge protection is adequate.

Because DVPs provide a structured methodology for implementing tests and evaluating results, they improve the quality of the product. When writing DVPs, you can choose to focus on testing the aspects of the product that must meet certain specifications. As a result, DVPs also help to improve customer satisfaction.

In the FMEA module, you can associate DVPs with any number of records in the FMEA Tree Items and FMEA Worksheet tables. You can also associate any record in the FMEA Tree Items or FMEA Worksheet table with multiple DVPs. The ability to have a many-to-many relationship between DVPs and records in these two FMEA tables means that you can create associations in any manner that you want. Additionally, you can create user-defined calculations to aggregate values for DVP fields.