A Practical Validation Assessment Workflow

Validation assessments should respond to a diverse set of stakeholders, each with different questions and needs relevant to validation. A single metric designed to address each validation need can inadvertently lead to convoluted, misleading interpretations, especially as individual stakeholders interpret the details of the assessment in terms of their own (often unevaluated) intended use. We propose a validation assessment workflow composed of four necessary and distinct components: (1) model accuracy, (2) model acceptability, (3) validation evaluation, and (4) validation recommendations. We discuss the necessity and purpose of each component in the validation workflow and demonstrate the intent of each component with an example from high-energy-density physics.