The client or end-users perform this type of testing to accept or verify the software before the Product Team can move on to the application and production stages of development. It is usually done during the final testing phase after the integration, functional, and system testing have already been done.
In an agile team, the acceptance criteria are usually a set of predefined requirements that must be met for the user story to become complete. The acceptance criteria in this team are also known as “definition of done,” as they determine the scope of the requirements that the developers should execute for the user story to be complete.
As the Product Manager, you will be responsible for writing the acceptance criteria to mark the user story as complete. This criterion is sometimes called “Definition of done.” This is because it determines the scope of requirements that must be executed. You can use a product management tool to automate the tedious tasks in the process.
Agile teams
The acceptance criteria in agile methodologies are in the form of the agile requirements documentation and have varying definitions, which include the following;
- Def 1: – Acceptance Criteria refers to the conditions that the product should satisfy to be accepted by the customer, users, or stakeholders.
- Def 2: – Acceptance Criteria refers to the pre-established requirements or standards that the product must meet.
Traits of an effective Acceptance Criteria
Here are a few features that it must meet;
It should be testable
The requirements help formulate the definition of done to the engineers, and therefore, they must be easy to test. The results of the tests must be understandable and leave no room for interpretation. These tests reveal a clear no, or yes, or pass, or fail.
The criteria should be concise and clear
Because you are not writing a comprehensive documentation, keep the criteria simple and as straightforward as possible.
It should be understandable
The criteria will quickly be considered useless if the developers do not understand what you have written. If you are unsure of whether it is clear, take some time to ask around and then make adjustments until everyone says they are clear.
It should provide the user perspective
Acceptance criteria mean that you are looking at the problem at hand from the customer’s perspective. Therefore, it should be written in the actual user’s experience context.
What is the purpose of the UAT?
The primary purpose of the User Acceptance Testing is to validate the end-to-end flow of business. It is not meant for spelling mistakes, cosmetic errors, or system testing. The UAT is done in a separate testing environment and has a production-like setup. Sort of a black box kind of testing where there are a couple of end-users.
Who does the UAT, and what is the process?
There are two main participants; the client and the end-users. Here’s a look at the process;
Step 1 – Analyzing the Business Requirements
This is one of the most vital activities of the UAT. To develop and identify the test scenarios. These are derived from the following documents;
- Business use cases,
- Project charter.
- Business requirements document
- Process flow diagrams
- System requirements specifications
Step 2 – Creating the UAT Plan
The plan is used to outline the strategy used in verifying and ensuring that the application meets the business requirements. It should document the entry and exit of the UAT. The test scenarios and test cases should also be defined, and the timelines of the testing.
Step 3 – Identifying the Test Cases and Scenarios
You should identify the test scenarios concerning the high-level business processes. It would help if you also created the test cases with clear steps. These test cases should sufficiently cover almost all of the UAT scenarios.
Step 4 – Preparing the Test Data
It is advisable to use live data during the User Testing. This data should be accurately scrambled to ensure security and privacy. The tester should also be familiar with the data flow.
Step 5 – Running and recording of the Results
During the process of executing the test cases, ensure to report any bugs found. Re-test the bugs once they are fixed. It would help if you used the test management tools for this function.
Step 6 – Confirming that the Business Objectives have been met
The business analysts and the testers will need to send a mail after the testing once they sign-off that the product is suitable for production. The deliverables for the testing are; UAT scenarios, the test plan, the test results, the test cases, and the defect log.
Conclusion
That is a simple explanation of what User Acceptance Testing is all about. Before moving on to the production, the following must be considered first; that there are no open critical defects, the business process works as expected and that the UAT sign-off meeting is with all the stakeholders.
