Re: A little respect for "unvalidated"

["Gene Kim-Eng" <techwr -at- genek -dot- com>]

"Unvalidated" = not proven to be accurate or true. "Invalidated" = proven to 
be inaccurate or untrue.

"Unvalidated" means your product or data has not successfully completed the 
process that verifies or "validates" it.  This can mean you haven't 
submitted it to the process yet, haven't completed the process yet, or have 
failed it (in the eyes of the regulators, failing is the same as not being 
tested, because validation is a go/no-go decision).  You haven't passed yet; 
try again when you think you've got the problem fixed.

"Invalidated," OTOH, means that at one point you were considered "validated" 
and that validation has been withdrawn.  The regulating agency's process of 
verification through testing and data collection, or worse, your actions in 
attempting to pass that process, is now suspect.  This can mean you will not 
be able to retest a revised product until the regulating agency has 
conducted a thorough review of its own processes and procedures and made any 
necessary revisions (massive delay in product release schedules for every 
company in the industry), or the auditors will be coming next Tuesday to 
turn your entire process upside down and shake it for flaws and/or 
corruption and every product you've successfully validated in the past may 
be subject to review.  Your company's stock loses 90% of its value overnight 
and "60 Minutes" may have a camera crew waiting for your CEO next time 
he/she heads for the office.

Not confusing at all.

Gene Kim-Eng


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Lauriston" <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>
> "I wonder how many people would ever be confused by 'un' in front of a
> word that they knew."
>
> Most of my dictionaries don't define "unvalidated." The OED defines it
> as "not validated or proven to be accurate or true."
>
> If in the medical device field "unvalidated" means the device failed a
> validation test, then that usage would confuse me.



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