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What is UAT
Before any software product goes live, there’s one final and crucial step to ensure it truly meets the needs of its end users—User Acceptance Testing (UAT). Often referred to as the “last line of defense,” UAT is where the intended users validate whether the system works as expected in real-world scenarios. Unlike unit or integration testing, which focuses on technical accuracy, User Acceptance Testing puts the spotlight on usability, functionality, and overall satisfaction from a user’s perspective. It helps catch any gaps between business requirements and the final product—gaps that developers or testers might miss. In this blog, we’ll discuss what UAT is, why it’s essential, the steps involved, and best practices to carry it out effectively.
UAT is a separate testing phase, which has to be planned and strategized beforehand. Although UAT plans may vary depending on the type of the project, the number of testers involved, and other factors, some general points still have to be considered before performing a UAT.
Analyzing the Requirements: It is necessary to gather all the requirements that must be validated during the testing.
Developing a Plan: Aside from the deadline and budget estimates, a rigid user acceptance test plan should include an account of roles and responsibilities for every team member. These norms determine the efficiency of the process, the templates used for documentation, entry-exit criteria, and other relevant data.
Identifying Test Cases: While designing test cases, we must make sure they are based on user stories and are clear for all team members. Ideally, a testing team should automate the execution of most user acceptance tests. Other than that, be sure to state the expected results clearly.
Setting up Test Environment: Using the same environment for UAT and functional testing is not recommended since we will most likely overlook several crucial real-world use cases. It is a standard process to design a separate testing environment for UAT and treat UAT as an autonomous system.
Preparing Test Data: In most cases, using a copy of production data is considered to protect any personal data involved in the testing process. If a testing team uses the data from the old system, QA professionals use the migration output copy.
Running User Acceptance Test: QA specialists usually rely on a toolset — JIRA, Bugzilla, Mantis, and others to streamline and facilitate test management. Sometimes we also consider a test execution methodology. Crowd testing is among the most used methods for international product testing.
Looping through the Test cases: If the clients spot any bugs during the UAT, the development team has to reiterate the testing process after optimizing the bugs.
How to Perform User Acceptance Testing (UAT)?
Performing User Acceptance Testing involves several structured steps to ensure the product meets business requirements:
Planning: Define the scope, objectives, timeline, and responsible stakeholders. Identify test scenarios based on business processes.
Designing Test Cases: Write test cases that reflect real-world usage, including expected results. These should be written in simple, non-technical language.
Preparing Test Data: Create or extract data that reflects realistic usage conditions.
Environment Setup: Use a UAT environment that closely mimics the production environment.
Execution: End users execute the test cases and record their feedback or report defects.
Bug Fixing & Retesting: Developers address any defects, and users retest the affected functionality.
Sign-off: Once the system meets all the acceptance criteria, users formally approve it for release.
Challenges of User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
UAT comes with several real-world challenges, such as:
Lack of User Involvement: Users may be busy or unavailable, delaying the testing process.
Unclear Requirements: Ambiguity in business requirements can lead to incomplete or irrelevant test cases.
Insufficient Time: Often, UAT is squeezed at the end of the project timeline, leaving little room for thorough testing.
Poor Test Planning: Inadequate planning can result in missed scenarios or duplicated efforts.
Technical Barriers: Users may not be comfortable using the UAT tools or environments.
Tools for User Acceptance Testing
Several tools help streamline the UAT process by improving test management, execution, and reporting:
TestRail: A powerful test management tool used to track test cases and results.
Zephyr: A Jira-integrated tool for managing UAT test cycles effectively.
PractiTest: Offers real-time visibility into testing progress and integrates with various CI/CD tools.
FitNesse: An open-source tool that allows collaborative writing and execution of acceptance tests.
Usersnap: Ideal for collecting user feedback directly during the UAT phase with screenshots and comments.
How to Perform User Acceptance Testing?
This heading is a repetition of the earlier one. You can either remove it or use it to present a real-world example or template for conducting UAT, such as:
Example Template:
Test Case ID: UAT001
Scenario: User logs into the system using valid credentials
Steps:
Open login page
Enter valid username and password
Click “Login”
Expected Result: User should be redirected to the dashboard
Actual Result: [To be filled by user]
Status: Pass/Fail
User Acceptance Testing vs System Testing
Aspect
User Acceptance Testing (UAT)
System Testing
Objective
Ensure the system meets business needs
Ensure the system works technically
Performed By
End users or business stakeholders
QA/Test engineers
Focus
Real-world use cases and user experience
Functional and non-functional tests
Environment
UAT or staging environment
QA or test environment
Timing
After system testing
After integration testing
Acceptance Testing vs V-Model
Acceptance Testing is a type of testing performed to determine whether the software meets business requirements and is ready for release.
V-Model, or the Verification and Validation model, is a software development model where each development stage is associated with a corresponding testing phase. Acceptance Testing in the V-Model corresponds to the Requirements phase, ensuring that the final product meets the initial requirements.
Feature
Acceptance Testing
V-Model
Type
Testing level
Development model
Focus
Validating the product with users
Mapping development and testing
When Used
At the end of development
Throughout the development life cycle
Goal
Ensure user satisfaction
Ensure thorough development and testing alignment
Need of UAT
UAT is crucial because it implies that the application is operating in a manner well suited to real-world scenarios and the clients' usage. If the expected output is not achieved during UAT, the application is iterated back to the developers for bug fixes. UAT serves as the last check between the developers and the client to ensure the quality of the application.
The needfor UAT arises once software has undergone Unit, Integration, and System testing because the developer might have misinterpreted the requirements communicated to him or because his understanding differed from the actual condition.
Software developed by the developers is their understanding of the requirements and may not be what the client needs from the software.
Changes in the requirement during the project may not be communicated effectively to the developers.
Types of UAT
This section will discuss some of the most popular UAT examples.
Alpha Testing: The testing team runs alpha testing without the clients' engagement, it occurs in the development environment, and the project team handles the operation. If the testing team spots system defects during alpha testing, the development team needs to fix the errors before moving to the next user acceptance testing stage.
Beta Testing: Beta testing is also referred to as field testing and is different from alpha testing. This type of UAT supports the customer environment and matches the conditions of real-life system usage. The developers engage a group of prospective customers for Beta Testing, and the group is encouraged to point out bugs in the application and share their reviews and feedbacks.
Operational Acceptance Testing: This type of UAT is also known as Production Acceptance Testing. We use Operation Acceptance Testing to validate user training algorithms, backup plans, the successful completion of security checks, and software maintenance processes.
Prototype Testing: It helps find errors and defects before creating the actual version of the product. This way, the design and development team can rework the solution to improve its final interface and functionality. Prototype testers gather prospective users in focus groups and validate the clarity of the interface, its correspondence to user requirements. They collect behavioral data and verbal feedback to understand better which direction branding and marketing teams should take when conceptualizing the product’s positioning and visual identity.
Contract and Regulation Acceptance Testing: In this UAT, the testing team reviews the product based on the requirements specified in the contract. The testing team checks the acceptance criteria mentioned in the agreement and whether the project meets the mentioned requirements. The team also needs to ensure that the application is compliant with the government regulations.
Factory Acceptance Testing: This type of UAT precedes the Beta Testing conducted within the team. We usually perform the procedure throughout the development cycle and use it to validate the hardware and software components of the system. It is much cheaper than the tests that require reaching out to end-users.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Are Different Types of UAT?
Some of the types of UAT are Alpha Testing, Beta Testing, Operational Acceptance Testing, Prototype Testing, Contract and Regulation Acceptance Testing, Factory Acceptance Testing.
Who is responsible for UAT?
The end-user or the client of the application is responsible for the User Acceptance Testing
What is the need for UAT?
UAT is crucial because it implies that the application is operating in a manner well suited to real-world scenarios and the clients' usage.
What is UAT?
UAT stands for User Acceptance Testing. User Acceptance Testing or UATis the final stage of any software testing process, and it is one of the most crucial stages. UATensures that the application is intuitive enough for a user and that the application cater's to the audience's expectations.
Conclusion
User Acceptance Testing (UAT) plays a vital role in the software development lifecycle by ensuring that the final product truly aligns with business needs and user expectations. It acts as the final checkpoint before a product goes live, helping to uncover any issues that may have been missed during earlier testing phases.
By involving actual users and focusing on real-world scenarios, UAT adds a practical layer of validation that purely technical tests cannot provide.
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