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> "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 and that validation has been withdrawn.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.
Well that meaning of invalidated carries an exclusion that I don't normally apprehend. I've never read (or used) the word to mean that you (your product, service, etc.) had to have previously been in "validated" state.
To me, all it's ever meant is that you have undergone the testing or verification procedure this time (whether it's the first-ever or the hundredth) and failed. To me, the key to "invalidated" is only that the attempt has occurred in the instance where the term is applied. I've never needed "invalidated" to further assert "has undergone the testing in the past and has passed/succeeded".
Now I'd wonder if that nuance/baggage carries over to other industries.
What's the OED got to say? :-)
- Kevin
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