Systems and methods validate the operation of a component of an executable model without inadvertently altering the behavior of the component. The model may be partitioned into a design space and a verification space. The component may be placed in the design space, while an observer for validating the component may be placed in the verification space, and linked to the component. During execution of the model, input or output values for the component may be computed and buffered. Execution of the observer may follow execution of the component. The input or output values may be read out of the buffer, and utilized during execution of validation functionality defined for the observer. Model compilation operations that may inadvertently alter the behavior of the component, such as back propagation of attributes, are blocked between the observer and the component.