What Is Acceptance Testing? Steps & Features

UAT is the most impactful kind of testing business-wise. This is the time where you either have hours upon hours of work validated by your client or take a step back and do some extra work. Let’s look at the flow and less money-driven benefits of UAT as well as potential challenges.

Definition

Acceptance testing is a critical stage and also a critical juncture for any solution. It is the act of verifying that a solution meets the business and technical demands that were agreed upon during the planning phase. It is typically done by the customer or a third-party company in collaboration with people that made the solution.

User Acceptance Testing Process

UAT has several stages essential to completing it. One can’t omit any and still claim it matches the acceptance testing definition.

Planning

The first stage is planning, during which the acceptance criteria, or requirements the solution is ought to fit in order to be considered acceptable, are defined. This stage is often done in collaboration with the customer or end-user, to verify that picked criteria accurately reflect needs and requests.

Preparation

Once the acceptance criteria have been written out, the next stage is preparation, when tests to assess the product are created. This is where you ensure that UAT is thorough and exhaustive, and that the tests accurately reflect what is anticipated of the solution..

Execution

Execution is where the testing takes place. You execute the test cases, observe the results, and record any issues or defects that are discovered. The goal of this stage is to see if the software meets the UAT criteria and is ready for prime time.

Execution may very well be the most complex step of UAT. On the one hand, you’re involving non-technical people into finding faults with software. On the other, you’re making technical people (your devs & QA) get even more intimate with the business side of things. We suggest using UAT testing software to bridge that gap, read information about user acceptance testing software here. Potential testers will have an easy time reporting issues, while your technical people can always see the requirements to see if these concerns are valid. 

Evaluation

The final stage is evaluation, where the results of UAT are analyzed. It determines whether the software has passed or failed the acceptance tests, and to spot any areas where it may require improvement.

Wrapping up pre-production work requires a good setup around the evaluation stage. You need to have a reasonable number of issues that the client won’t let you fix after going into production. You need to have solid criteria to assess severity of issues: this will be the biggest point of contention if you disagree that the software is not ready. Last but not least, extracting insights from the evaluation stage will help you shorten the cycle of making adjustments..

Benefits of Acceptance Testing

The pros to conducting all acceptance testing stages won’t fit one article. For starts, it helps to ensure that the software meets the needs and expectations of the customer. By verifying that the software meets the acceptance criteria, UAT makes user unhappiness and overall failure less likely. This has even more significance for contractors: the faster you satisfy one client, the sooner you can move on. 

Additionally, UAT can help to identify and fix defects and even non-coding faults with the solution prior to it being released to the public. This raises the QA bar and makes software (more) reliable, potentially saving resources that would have been otherwise allocated for post-release support. 

Acceptance testing’s definition does not limit its value to merely one solution. It can also improve communication and collaboration between different teams within an organization. By engaging the customer in the UAT process, organizations can gain valuable insights into the user experience and can use them to level up the UX and functionality of their solutions.

In some cases, acceptance testing can also be applied to guesstimate the performance of the software under practically real-life conditions. This can be particularly nice for testing solutions that will be used in extremely quality-sensitive applications, where reliability and performance are more important than anywhere else.

Finally, acceptance testing can yield crucial documentation pieces suitable for demonstrating the level of polish and reliability of the software. This documentation can be useful for regulatory compliance, as well as for marketing and new business.

Challenges of UAT

One of the key challenges of UAT is setting the acceptance criteria in stone. It can be a difficult and time-consuming endeavor, even more so if you are handling tricky requirements or if there are several stakeholders with different needs and expectations. It is important to involve the customer or end-user to ensure that their needs are accounted for (adjusted for the scope of work).

Another challenge of acceptance testing is making tests that entirely cover the acceptance criteria. Doing that can be very tough, especially if the criteria are complicated or subject to interpretation. It is important to carefully design the test cases to ensure that they are thorough and comprehensive, and that they fit all of the acceptance criteria.

One notable UAT struggle is the testing itself. This may shape up to be very costly in terms of time and labor, especially if the software is complex and/or a lot of test cases will be performed. It is important to carefully structure and even mastermind testing to ensure that it is efficient.

Lastly, a massive challenge is evaluating UAT. This can be difficult, especially if there are many bugs or issues that need to be addressed. It is vital to carefully take in the results of UAT so you can move on or at least attentively spot areas where it may need extra effort.

Conclusion

Acceptance testing is an essential part of making software. It ensures that the end-result meets the business and technical requirements of the customer or end-user, and can help to identify and eliminate problems prior to the software being released. UAT is a vital step that needs to be planned and executed well to ensure the success of the software.