What is User Acceptance Testing (UAT)?


What Is User Acceptance Testing and How Does It Work?

Testing is well-understood, and acceptance denotes approval or agreement. In the context of a software product, the user is either the program's consumer or the person who asked that it be made for him or her (client).

User Acceptance Testing (UAT), often known as beta or end-user evaluating, is the process of a user or client testing software to see whether it can be accepted. This is the last stage of testing after the functional, system, and regression tests have been completed.

The major goal of this testing is to ensure that the software meets the company's needs. End-users who are acquainted with the business need to do this validation.

When is it performed?

This is usually the last stage before the product goes online or before the product is approved for distribution. After the product has been extensively tested, this is done (i.e after system testing).

Who is responsible for UAT?

Users or clients — This might be someone who is purchasing a product (in the case of commercial software) or someone who has had software custom-built by a software service provider, or the end-user if the program is made accessible to them ahead of time and their input is requested.

The team might be made up of beta testers, or the client can choose UAT members from within the business to ensure that each and every user role is thoroughly tested.

User Acceptance Testing is Required

Developers and functional testers are technical individuals who ensure that the program meets the functional requirements. They use their expertise to comprehend the requirements and develop/test the program (here is the importance of domain knowledge).

Although this program complies with the functional criteria, several business needs and procedures that are only understood by end-users are either overlooked or misread.

This testing is critical in determining whether or not all of the business criteria have been met before the program is released for general usage. This testing is an essential element of the release cycle since it uses actual data and real use cases.

Many companies who have incurred significant losses as a result of post-release difficulties understand the value of a successful User Acceptance Test. The expense of addressing flaws after they've been released is several times higher than fixing them before they've been released.

Process of User Acceptance Testing

The best approach to comprehend this process is to think of it as an autonomous testing project, with stages for planning, designing, and executing.

Prior to beginning the planning phase, the following prerequisites must be met −

1. Compile a list of the most important Acceptance Criteria

In basic words, the acceptance criterion is a list of elements that will be assessed before the product is accepted.

There are two sorts of these −

  • Functionality of the application or business-related issues − In an ideal world, every critical business function would be tested, but owing to a variety of factors, including time constraints, this is not feasible. As a result, a meeting or two with the client or users who will be participating in the testing may give us an indication of how much testing will be done and what parts will be checked.

  • Contractual − We will not get into this, and the QA team's role in all of this is minimal. The original contract, which is written out before the SDLC starts, is evaluated, and a decision is made on whether or not all components of the contract have been fulfilled.

We'll concentrate only on the application's functionality.

2. Define the scope of the quality assurance engagement

The job of the QA team is one of the following −

  • No Involvement − This is very uncommon.

  • Assist with the testing − This is the most usual option. In this situation, our participation may include teaching UAT users how to use the application and being on standby throughout the testing to ensure that we can assist users if they have any problems. In other situations, we may share their replies and record the findings, log problems, and so on, in addition to being on standby and helping, while the users execute the real testing.

  • Do UAT and deliver the results − In this situation, the users will indicate which aspects of the AUT they wish to examine, and the QA team will conduct the evaluation. The findings are then provided to the clients/users, who must decide if the results they have are adequate and meet their expectations in order to adopt the AUT. The QA team never makes the final choice.

We choose the appropriate method based on the facts of the situation.

Planning UAT Tests

In the system phase, the procedure is almost identical to the standard test plan.

In most projects, the most frequent method is to prepare for both the system and UAT testing stages at the same time. Please see the UAT parts of the accompanying test plan document for further information and an example of the UAT test plan.

Plan for User Acceptance Testing

The UAT test plan contains the dates, environment, actors(who), communication protocols, roles and responsibilities, templates, results and their analysis process, entry exit criteria, and anything else that is important.

It is our responsibility to prepare for this phase and ensure that everything is taken into account, whether the QA team is participating fully, partly, or not at all in this test.

Execution of the Test

When feasible, acceptance testing takes place in a conference or war room setting, when users, PMs, and QA team members all get together for a day or two and go through all of the acceptance test cases.

We execute the test cases on the AUT if the QA team is running the tests.

The Acceptance Decision is made when all of the tests have been completed and the findings have been received. This choice is also known as the "Go/No-Go" decision. It's a Go if the consumers are happy; otherwise, it's a No-go.

This step usually concludes with the acceptance decision.

Methodologies & Tools

Typically, the software tools used during this phase of testing are identical to those used during functional testing.

Tools

Because this step entails testing the application's whole end-to-end flow, having a single tool to thoroughly automate this validation may be problematic. However, we would be able to use the automated scripts built during system testing to some degree.

Users would utilize test management and defect management tools such as QC, JIRA, and others in the same way that they would use system testing. These tools may be set up to collect information for the User Acceptance phase.

Methodologies

Though traditional approaches such as specialized business users doing UAT of the product are still applicable, in today's really global world, User Acceptance Testing may need to include a variety of consumers from different nations depending on the product.

Customers from all over the world might utilize an e-commerce website, for example. Crowd testing would be the most practical method in this situation.

Crowd testing is a way in which individuals from all around the globe may participate and verify the product's use while also offering comments and recommendations.

Many companies have constructed and are presently using crowd testing systems. The platform hosts a website or a product that has to be crowd tested, and consumers may nominate themselves to do the validation. The supplied input is then examined and prioritized.

Crowd Testing is proven to be more successful since the pulse of the client can be readily understood around the world.

UAT in an Agile Environment

In nature, the agile environment is more dynamic. Business users will be engaged throughout project sprints in an agile world, and the project will be improved based on their feedback loops.

Business users would be the primary stakeholders at the start of the project, providing requirements and updating the product backlog. Business users would participate in the sprint demo at the conclusion of each sprint and would be ready for any comments.

Furthermore, prior to the sprint's conclusion, a UAT phase would be scheduled, during which the business users would do their validations.

The input obtained during the sprint demo and sprint UAT is compiled and added to the product backlog, which is evaluated and prioritized on a regular basis. As a result, in an agile environment, business customers are closer to the project and review it more regularly for its utility, as opposed to typical waterfall projects.

Conclusion

  • User acceptance testing isn't about the sites, forms, or buttons. Even before this test starts, the underlying assumption is that all of the essential components have been thoroughly examined and are in good working order. If people discover a flaw as simple as that, it's terrible news for the QA staff.

  • This test is focused on the entity that is the business's most important component.

  • UAT is, at its heart, a sort of testing, which means there's a strong possibility you'll find some defects at this stage as well. It occurs from time to time. Aside from being a huge escalation for the QA team, UAT problems frequently need a meeting to sit down and discuss how to address them, since there is usually no time to correct and retest after this testing.

Updated on: 20-Dec-2021

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