Executable Specifications as First-Class Independent Verification and Validation Artifacts for Quantum Information and Machine Learning

Ragib Shahariar Ayon, Shibbir Ahmed

Executable specifications make software assumptions explicit and checkable, yet their role in quantum information and machine learning (QIML) remains underexplored. We argue that executable specifications should be treated as first-class artifacts for independent verification and validation (IV&V) of QIML systems. Static analysis, testing, simulation, and runtime checking can provide evidence about QIML behavior, while Design by Contract shows that selected quantum-state, measurement, and statistical properties can be expressed as checkable conditions. However, adapting existing methods for specification inference and assessment from conventional and machine-learning software to QIML raises several challenges, notably limited evidence for deriving generalizable specifications, cross-stage and probabilistic behavior, repository-scale reasoning across hybrid workflows, and weak behavioral oracles. We characterize these challenges and identify research directions for QIML corpora, specification semantics, repository-level analysis, and specification assessment.