Explain the difference between validating and verifying a requirement, and why a BA should care about both.

1. Verification asks “did we build the thing right?” — does the delivered functionality match the documented requirement and its acceptance criteria.
2. Validation asks “did we build the right thing?” — does the requirement actually solve the business problem it was written for.
3. A requirement can pass verification perfectly and still fail validation. That is exactly how teams deliver a solution that matches the specification and nobody uses.
4. I verify continuously through acceptance criteria, story acceptance, and UAT scripts. I validate through playback sessions, prototypes, and early demonstrations to real end users.
5. Traceability links the two: mapping each requirement back to a business objective makes it visible when a story has no business justification, which is the earliest warning of a validation problem.