  Validation and verification of plasma kinetics codes requires the development
of quantitative methods and techniques for code comparisons. We describe two
parameters that can be used for characterization of differences between such
codes. It is shown that these parameters, which are determined from the most
general results of kinetic codes, can provide important information on the
differences between the basic rate coefficients employed. Application of this
method is illustrated by comparisons of some results from the 3rd NLTE Code
Comparison Workshop for carbon, germanium, and gold plasmas.
