ISVV derives from the application of IV&V to software. IV&V as we know it dates back to the early 1970s when the U.S Army sponsored the first significant such IV&V program for the Safeguard Anti-Ballistic Missile System.

By the end of the 1970s IV&V was rapidly becoming popular. The increasing coplexity, size and importance of the software lead to an increasing demand on IV&V.

Meanwhile IV&V gets consolidated and is now widely used by organisations such as ESA, NASA, DoD and FAA. IV&V is mentioned in [ISO/IEC 12207] and formalized in [IEEE 1012].

Critical Software was one of the companies involved in the compilation process of the ESA ISVV Guide which was finished in 2005.