User Acceptance Testing (UAT) | Why Is It So Important?

Defining UAT | User Acceptance Testing

Of all forms of testing that we execute as part of software quality assurance, user acceptance testing (UAT) is often the most essential to get it right for the users. The purpose of UAT is to determine if the product is market ready, in another word, it is able to perform in the hands of real end-users. In terms of naming, it might not be called as such in your organizations, it can also be referred to as alpha or beta testing.

And sometimes people seem to confuse the differences between use acceptance testing and functional testing. But it’s only confusing when you have testing phases and techniques mixed up.

To begin with, quality assurance scheme can be divided into the following 4 main levels (phases) and in this article we are going to focus on UAT which we get asked often by clients.

• Component Test (Unit Test)

• Integration Test

• System Test

• Acceptance Test

It's All About The Users

There is an overlap with other testing techniques, but what makes it different from simply testing functions is that it’s all about the user. Whether the software is constructed in-house or by outsourcing software testing services company, any solutions must go through UAT because users are the ultimate audience who would be paying for your solutions. In product management terminology, UAT takes place as beta testing in which a small group of early adaptors try out the product and provide user feedback. This provides you important piece of information for you to know if the solution is meeting both business requirements and user expectations. After that, once larger group of users start to use the solution, market feedback will be provided which product team may want use to determine problem areas that need to be quickly addressed.

Since it puts users’ needs at the center of the discussion, the questions testers need to answer are:

• Q. Are the users able to use the solution without error?

• Q. Does the solution behave in expected ways and meet promised specs?

• Q. Does the solution work when users take a series of unexpected actions?

• Q. Does the solution solve users’ problem after all?

Tips on Test Cycle Management

We think that collecting evidence from end-users and copy pasting screenshots of test results into Excel worksheet is very time-consuming. That is why we highly recommend you choose the right tool for your team during scoping phase, in order to make sure necessary data is collected, visualized and made sharable to accurately tracking improvements made after UAT. At SHIFT ASIA, our testers use our own management tool to visualize that data that speeds up team collaboration.