Without user acceptance testing, companies have no way to determine if a tool or process is working.  Every company shares the same goal, giving customers the best.  However, to protect the company’s name and build the customer database, whatever is offered has to be perfect.  To accomplish this, the user on the inside, the employee, has to know what he or she is done write, which is determined through user acceptance testing.

The great thing about user acceptance testing is that it applies to all industries.  Therefore, material, educational, medical acoustic, metal corrosion, product, analytical, services, and every other type of product and/or service offered can be tested, as long as it has to do with an application that would eventually be used by consumers.  With user acceptance testing, there are two primary groups in which thing happen.

Functional

The first area of user acceptance testing has to do with functionality.  The purpose of testing in this group is to ensure business requirements are not only met but exceeded.  The requirements being targeted are those coming from customers or employees within the company who do the design and development.  For instance, testing in this case would include things such as testing units, systems, interfaces, integration, and so on.

Non-Functional

The second group has to do with testing on specifications and conditions that have been determined by the customer.  For instance, things such as performance, stress, data conversion, ergonomics, security, and installation would be considered as non-functional testing.

In addition to user acceptance testing, other options include competitive analysis and automated.  With the first, two or more products would be tested, looking specifically for functionality, usability, and performance.  The purpose of competitive analysis is to ensure that products are designed so they meet the demands of competition within the marketplace.  For automated testing, the process involves moving from manual scenarios of testing to codes that machines can read.  When it comes to software programs and marketing products, automated testing is highly beneficial.

People need to understand that before user acceptance testing can commence, the application that will be tested has to be completely developed.  Prior to reaching this phase of testing, the application would have already gone through other processes such as unit testing, system testing, and integration testing.  That means that the majority of technical issues have already been worked out.

The goal of user acceptance testing is using cases that have been identified for requirements.  With this, focus can be placed on the actual application that would be rolled out for customers to use.  By using this type of testing, every imaginable scenario can be determined and then tested to make sure each works as designed.  With this, the majority of the focus is on usability and functionality of an application.  While technical aspects are also important, these would have been covered in other types of testing.

For user acceptance testing to work the best, the process needs to be done in an environment that matches that of the real world where the application would be used.  In other words, if a company has chosen a specific type of software to use in a warehouse, which is commonly a dirty environment, then the application needs to go through user acceptance testing also in a warehouse environment.  That way, real problems or challenges can be identified and fixed prior to the program being rolled out to the customer.

There is also a precise process in which user acceptance testing is done.  For instance, companies want to follow these guidelines:

• Planning of the User Acceptance Testing – During this phase, which is the most important, the strategy for the testing would be defined
• Designing cases for the testing – To ensure all possible scenarios are covered, test cases have to be designed
• Organizing a team responsible for execution of the cases – This team would consist of actual, end-users, those who would actually use the software application
• Execution of test cases – For this, the test cases would begin, put into action so problems could be identified
• Documenting any type of problem or defect found during user acceptance testing – Comments, issues, challenges, and risks would be carefully logged
• Fixing or resolving found problems – Anything found that does not meet high standards to ensure the customer gets what he or she needs would be fixed
• Signing off that the testing is complete and all issues are resolved – When the user acceptance testing is complete and the issues are completely resolved, then the user of the software application would sign off and the product delivered and installed according to contract