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ISTQB defines UAT as:
“Acceptance testing (UAT) is formal testing with respect to user needs, requirements, and business processes conducted to determine whether or not a system satisfies the acceptance criteria and to enable the users, customers or other authorized entity to determine whether or not to accept the system. [After IEEE 610]”
Doing User Acceptance Testing is a key step towards meeting the real expectations of target customers. This article proposes what needs to be included in the User Acceptance Testing Plan to avoid pitfalls during testing.
User Acceptance Testing ( UAT) is the final stage of the software development life cycle (SDLC) executed following functional, integration, and system testing. The other names of UAT are beta, end-user or acceptance testing. It presupposes the application being evaluated by the end-users of the software. Tests are executed in to ensure that system requirements meet business needs and allowing for any issues to be fixed before the system goes live.
Purpose of User Acceptance
UAT is essential because:
- It is an essential part of the software testing procedure, conducting UAT may help to find failures that were not previously raised or considered as acceptable.
- To catch pace with market trends, firms should consider the needs of their target users. During UAT users verify that the developed solution is fit for purpose or not.
- The developers design and validate the product from a technical perspective. They imply their interpretation of the customer needs, but they may not be aware of the actual interpretation of the customer.
- Requirements of the customers are quite unpredictable and may not be taken into consideration or get missed during initiation due to lack of communication among developers and end-users.
As a consequence, a -newly developed solution can be inappropriate or out of date, UAT can solve each of these problems.
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Points to consider during User Acceptance Testing
Conducting an efficient UAT is indeed a time-intensive and challenging task for the testers. A systematic review is a secret to this. A well-structured checklist contains the following stages:
Stage 1. Before you get started with the project
The first stage helps to prevent future problems. If there are many things to be kept in mind regarding what to be done and you don’t know what to do initially, below are the stages of preparation:
- List and contact your future stakeholders
- Discuss with end-users the corporate objectives, aims and key deliverables of the project
- Choose a single point of contact for testing in the team
- Ascertain the documents and the UAT resources
- Create the project templates
- Gearing up UAT Team Training
Stage 2. Define the methodology
Make a strategy that holds all the information collected at the first stage. This will help to plan the execution and formulate the final results.
- Recognize the UAT methodology for evaluating the right UAT solution.
- The specifications of business must be explicitly defined and clarified with the UAT team
- Assessing existing documentation’s to serve as a reference for test basis
- Ensure that all business requirements are included and documented.
Stage 3. UAT blueprinting
Clearly state the test points and verify that the previous stages are delivered successfully. When the team fully understands the scope and expectation, it will fulfil the needs of the stakeholders.
- Set proper expectations with testers at the beginning of UAT.
- List entry-exit criteria, test conditions, and approaches to kick off UAT
- Business scenarios need to be recognized as well as given correct priority
- Define the strategic plan of User acceptance testing
- Note the test criteria as well as the test cases on the basis of the existing ones.
- Prepare requirement traceability matrix
- List testing scenarios and prepare test cases
- Ensure that the test cases consist of all the business requirements
Stage 4. When the UAT is still in progress
Comprehensive preparation is the key, but still everything can go wrong when UAT kick-off. The project has to be monitor and tracked on all stages to achieve UAT timeline.
- Ensure that end users devote dedicated time in executing the UAT test scripts. because they are most knowledgeable of the business processes and therefore provide best-expected system behaviour.
- Organize the procedure and report
- Ensure that the team executes the testing as per the test plan and strategy
- Ensure that defects are reported promptly and accurately
- Conduct daily meetings to communicate status and address questions as they come up.
- Schedule time for defect resolution and re-testing of functionality.
Stage 5. UAT Exit
You should not miss the final phase and produce a transparent and detailed analysis. A sign off on the UAT execution is fundamental to go live.
- Generate test exit report giving details of executed tests, bug raised and current status of all defects
- Evaluate and then take a call to officially close UAT phase.
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Conclusion
It is possible to incorporate workflows of UAT much earlier. UAT itself is not a separate project step when it is pursuing a more agile approach to UAT. Rather it involves ongoing cooperation among all team members and stakeholders.UAT is important because it helps to demonstrate that the business functions required are operating in a way that suits real-world circumstances and usage. If the desired result is not achieved during the evaluation, the item will be reported and returned to the developers for fixing or mitigation action or workaround to be communicated.