Mumbai University > Information Technology > Sem 8 > Software Testing and Quality Assurance

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Acceptance testing :

Acceptance testing is a formal testing conducted to determine whether a system satisfies its acceptance criteria – the criteria the system must satisfy to be accepted by the customer.

It helps the customer to determine whether or not to accept the system.

The purpose of this test is to evaluate the system’s compliance with the business requirements and assess whether it is acceptable for delivery.

Acceptance testing is performed after System Testing and before making the system available for actual use.

There are various forms of Acceptance Testing :

1. User Acceptance Testing
2. Business Acceptance Testing
3. Alpha Testing
4. Beta Testing

Objectives of Acceptance Testing:

Following are the three major objectives of Acceptance Testing:

• Confirm that the system meets the agreed-upon criteria.
• Identify and resolve discrepancies, if there are any.
• Determine the readiness of the system for cut-over to live operations. The final acceptance of a system for deployment is conditioned upon the outcome of the acceptance testing. The acceptance test team produces an acceptance test report which outlines the acceptance conditions.

Different types of acceptance testing:

There are two categories of acceptance testing :

1. User acceptance testing ( UAT )

   The UAT is conducted by the customer to ensure that system satisfies the contractual acceptance criteria before being signed off as meeting user needs.

   Actual planning and execution of the acceptance tests do not have to be undertaken directly by the customer.

   Often third party consulting firms offer their services to do this task. However, the customer must specify the acceptance criteria for the third party to seek in the product.

   It concentrates on meeting the customer’s requirements functional/software/hardware requirements.

   User Acceptance Testing is also known as Beta Testing, application testing or end user testing.

   When performing UAT , there are seven basic steps to ensure the system is tested thoroughly and meets the business needs :

   • Analyse Business Requirements
   • Identify UAT scenarios
   • Define the UAT Test Plan
   • Create UAT Test Cases
   • Run the Tests
   • Record the Results
   • Confirm Business Objectives are met.

   UAT is one of the final and critical software project procedures that must occur before newly developed software is rolled out to the market.

   A common UAT is a factory acceptance test (FAT) in the industrial sector which takes place before the installation of the concerned equipment.

2. Business acceptance testing ( BAT )

   The BAT is undertaken within the development organization of the supplier to ensure that the system will eventually pass the UAT.

   It is a rehearsal of UAT at the premises of the supplier.

   The development organization of the supplier derives and executes test cases from the client’s contract, which include the acceptance criteria.

   It concentrates on meeting the business requirements of business scenarios or business specifications.

   The purpose of Business Acceptance Testing is to provide a set of working and fully tested features that are ready for production to be tested and validated by the business.

   It is recommended that the delivery team works collaboratively with the Business to define a testing approach and plan with test cases. Any defects found at this stage will be handled by the Business Test Lead, Business Analyst and Development Lead along with the support from the Project Manager.

   The business customers (product owners ) are the primary project stakeholders of these tests. As the users pass their acceptance criteria, the business owners can be reassured that the developers are progressing in the right direction.