What is UAT, When is UAT performed in software testing?

User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is an important software testing type simply because an external user will be responsible for testing the product in a real-time environment. This will in turn help in knowing the worth of a software product or application from a user and market point of view. Hence, it becomes crucial to conduct user acceptance testing in a strategic and productive manner. In this article, you will get to know about UAT and the right context to perform UAT in software testing.

What is User Acceptance Testing (UAT)?

It is a testing method wherein end-users will be given the responsibility to test the software product or application in a real-time environment. The application will be assessed by testers, wherein real-world scenarios are simulated and issues or bugs are identified that might have been overlooked by the internal QA team.

There is a dedicated testing environment wherein the UAT process is executed. In certain scenarios such as when there is a change in the software, when there is a new update or integration, UAT can be conducted. It also ensures that the software product or application is in line with the business and user specific requirements.

The right context to perform user acceptance testing:

UAT is conducted in the final stages of the software development process, just before the software product or application goes live or is going to be released. It is conducted to ascertain whether the software product or application can properly function in a real-time environment.

Following are the five steps required to perform UAT:

1. The acceptance criteria need to be defined: The business requirements must be properly analyzed. Business documentation will help in developing business requirements documentation, system requirements and specifications, process flow diagrams and acceptance criteria use cases. Through these, the UAT acceptance criteria can be defined and the testing is done to confirm that the end-to-end business needs are properly met.

2. The right testers should be selected: Depending upon the testing environment and scenario, the team can work on recruiting the right testers. It is considered to be ideal to have users from both a user and business perspective. Testers might be technical or non-technical and hence the skill level of testers needs to be understood so that the test sessions and materials can be made more effective.

3. Test scenarios need to be prepared: A feature review might be targeted with checklists, or a series of steps needs to be provided for a user to follow, so that defects can be checked. When these materials are created, it helps to make sure that during UAT, the application needs to be challenged and simply the function need not be confirmed. Test scenarios need to be created that use data input or complex progressions so that the app's capabilities can be challenged.

4. The UAT session needs to be conducted: A kick-off meeting helps in leveraging the user acceptance testing process. The process can be initiated by a product review and also by taking into consideration test expectations and deadlines. Help resources or contact information for support is provided to testers.

This might be a contact in the UAT team or software QA department. An individual follow-up meeting needs also to be scheduled, as it can help in finding issues early on in the development process.

5. Test results need to be reported: Once the tests are run, the results need to be compiled and reported. An exit ticket from the testing process is ensured by this report if user expectations and test criteria are met.

Conclusion: If you are looking forward to implementing user acceptance testing for your specific project, then do get connected with a professionally acclaimed software testing services company that will provide you with a strategic testing roadmap that is in line with your project specific requirements.

About the author: I am a technical content writer focused on writing technology specific articles. I strive to provide well-researched information on the leading market savvy technologies.