User acceptance testing (UAT) is defined as a phase of software development where its target end users test the features and functionalities of the software to check how compatible it is in real-time. Here’s a complete guide on the meaning, process, benefits, and best practices of user acceptance testing.
Table of Contents
What Is User Acceptance Testing (UAT)?
User acceptance testing, or UAT, is a software testing process that generally takes place at the last stage of software development to test how acceptable the software is in real-time. The primary purpose of user acceptance testing is to assess how efficiently the software can provide the intended solutions to the target audience.Â
The user acceptance testing process is executed in a dedicated testing environment. Not only for new software development but even for a new update, integration, or change in a software, this testing process can be executed. While conventional testing methods such as unit testing and integration testing are popular among developers and testers, there has always been a gap between the final product and the requirements and expectations of users.Â
It is possible that even after having all the required features and functionalities, the product is not efficient in serving the actual purpose. In such a case, one needs to go through the process of re-testing, re-working, and re-building, which is not only time-consuming but often expensive. User acceptance testing bypasses these hassles by facilitating end-to-end business flow and ensuring customer-centric and market-driven product development.Â
The five types of user acceptance testing are:
1. Contract acceptance testing
In this type of user acceptance testing, a product or software is tested after the development phase against a specific set of predetermined criteria. Such a set of criteria is generally based on a set of specifications that are mentioned on a contract and agreed upon.Â
During the contract agreement, the developer team defines each of the specified criteria and also the specifications to be met for the acceptance of the product. While contract acceptance testing is a widely adopted user acceptance testing process, it is mainly suitable for contract-based product development.
2. Regulation acceptance testing
Regulation acceptance testing or compliance acceptance testing refers to the user acceptance testing process where software is tested to check whether the proper regulations or compliances are met if you are building a product that needs to meet certain government regulations or compliances.
3. Operational acceptance testing
The operability of software determines how successful it will be in serving its intended purpose. Operational acceptance testing aims to ensure a product’s optimum operational efficiency.Â
The operational acceptance testing process includes product workflow checking, security scanning, backup plan testing, maintenance process upgrading, and other operational efficiency checks. This type of user acceptance testing is also known as product acceptance testing or operational readiness testing, as one can assess whether a product is completely ready or fully operational through this testing process.
4. Alpha & beta testing
Alpha and beta testing is another famous type of user acceptance testing where alpha testing is executed in the product development environment and beta testing is done in the end users’ environment.Â
Here, the internal staff does the alpha testing to find out any possible bugs, loopholes, or issues in a product even before the product is released to the target audience. Beta testing or field testing is performed after taking feedback from alpha testing and is executed by a specific group of customers. Both alpha and beta testing are done before a product is released to its target audience, and hence, are effective in ensuring competitive product development.
5. Black box testing
Black box testing is a well-known user acceptance testing method that is famously known as a type of functional testing. In black box testing, specific product functionalities are tested to determine whether they are as required or not.Â
The main differentiating factor of black box testing from other types of testing is, in black box testing, testers don’t test or check the internal code structure but only emphasize product functionalities.
See More: What is Sentiment Analysis? Definition, Tools, and ApplicationsÂ
UAT Testing Process
One of the critical goals of the user acceptance testing process is focusing on the areas that are not addressed in quality assurance testing. The main objective of quality assurance testing is to check and fix software bugs, errors, and issues; however, this does not check how efficient a product is to provide specific solutions to the audience. As a result, user acceptance testing comes into play to test how acceptable the product is.
UAT Testing Process
One can execute user acceptance testing through the following steps:
Step 1. Conduct product requirements analysis
The first step to performing user acceptance testing is to do a thorough analysis of the requirements of a product. To start the user acceptance testing process, you will need a set of inputs based on which you need to start the testing process. These sets of inputs are mainly based on software requirements specification (SRS).Â
An SRS document includes all the requirements to build software, such as functional requirements, features & solutions requirements, and business requirements. Therefore, taking these sets of requirements as inputs helps test the product and assess whether it is effective enough to cater to the audience’s needs.Â
While preparing an SRS document, executing the product requirement analysis and user acceptance testing is essential. One also needs to emphasize the technical requirements of a product, including its functionalities, performance, critical technicalities for product features and solutions, and others.Â
It is recommended to execute this stage by collaborating with product and quality assurance engineers, business analysts, product managers, and others so that every aspect of the product requirements is covered and analyzed thoroughly.Â
At the end of the product requirement analysis stage, you would need to create a technical document by taking inputs from the requirements analysis. You also need to add various testing strategies, protocols, standards, rules, and other relevant information to comply with them.
Step 2. Opt for a suitable methodology
It is crucial to set up a proper methodology for product development and testing by end users. Most of the time, Waterfall and Agile methodologies are used for user acceptance testing, as discussed below.
In the Waterfall model, UAT is conducted at the end of the development cycle, right before the product launch. The following steps are taken in the Waterfall model:
- Requirements gathering: A set of critical requirements for product development is gathered.
- Product UX designing: The next step is to design the UX of the product by taking a user-driven approach.
- Development: The product is developed taking into account the requirements set and user expectations.
- Quality assurance testing: The product is tested to ensure its quality. Thorough testing and analysis is performed to find out any possible errors, bugs, or issues, to achieve optimum product quality.Â
- User acceptance testing: The product is tested by a group of specific users for its acceptance.
User acceptance testing in the Agile methodology takes a completely different approach than the straightforward Waterfall model. The Agile methodology includes several iterative steps for each phase of software development, and it incorporates feedback implementations through a highly flexible and dynamic development method.Â
The main difference between the Waterfall methodology and the Agile methodology for UAT is, in the latter, UAT is performed in several stages. Based on product type, features, development strategies, target audience, and other factors, one can opt for the methodology that better fits the UAT requirements.
Step 3. Build the right UAT team
To ensure that the user acceptance testing is executed properly and can generate valuable outputs to develop a market-driven product, you need to build the right UAT team. You can either choose user acceptance testers from your existing users or onboard individuals from the target audience who are interested in testing the application.Â
Based on your product type, functionalities, sector, target audience, and other factors, you can recruit members to form a suitable UAT team. UAT team members can be business analysts, QA testers with relevant experience, project team members, target audience members, and others as well. You can also utilize social media, crowdsourcing platforms, and other sites to reach out to the intended audience for user acceptance testing and build a team as per your requirements.
Step 4. Set up the required testing tools
No matter how well-formed your user acceptance testing group is or how well you plan your user acceptance testing, without the proper testing tools, there can be major gaps in the result. It is recommended to do thorough research on the available user acceptance testing tools available in the market and based on your product type, category, and goals, you can choose the ones to execute user acceptance testing more efficiently.
Some popular user acceptance testing tools are:
| UAT Tool | Key Features/Solutions |
| UserBrainOpens a new window |
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| AmplitudeOpens a new window |
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| SentryOpens a new window |
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| FullStoryOpens a new window |
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| MazeOpens a new window |
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| UserReportOpens a new window |
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| Crazy EggOpens a new window |
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| UseberryOpens a new window |
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Step 5. Create a proper test environmentÂ
One cannot execute user acceptance testing properly unless the right user acceptance environment is created. To start on the right note, you must plan and arrange proper training.Â
You need to craft a proper plan with the user acceptance testing manager and the testers to structure your training properly. Here are some of the critical pointers you should focus on to nail this stage like a pro:
- Provide the user acceptance testers with a clear idea about the product, its key features, solutions, and its intended functionalities
- Introduce the main user acceptance tools, their key functions, and operability to the testers
- Train them with the correct information such as reporting guidelines, standards, rules, protocols, and others, as needed
- Give the testers as well as the user acceptance testing manager proper access to use the tools, test the product, and report accordingly
- Keep them well-aware of the relevant methodologies, rules, and processes to streamline all activities and avoid any possible disputes
Keeping all these things in mind will help in creating the perfect user acceptance testing environment to get better results.
Step 6. Execute the testing process
Once you are done with the above steps, the essential part–executing the user acceptance testing process–needs to be completed. As you already know, a specific group of users is in charge of user acceptance testing, and to get started, you will need a team lead and a manager to streamline the activities, smoothly get the required information, and facilitate hassle-free execution.Â
You would need to convey information to the testers about the critical test cases and the respective actions that are required for each of them. As such, the users will be well-aware of what steps to take and how to assess the functionalities of the product.Â
Furthermore, you need to train the developers about when to take actions to fix errors or issues or upgrade your product as per the feedback obtained from the acceptance testing group. Also, don’t forget to facilitate proper communication among the intended teams to ensure the successful execution of testing as well as development.
Step 7. Collect the information and analyze
It is crucial to get the information from the output after implementing the user acceptance testing and analyze it thoroughly to take proper actions. While it seems like a no-brainer, a lot of factors need to be focused on.Â
The outcome of user acceptance testing should be generated in a structured manner, preferably in the form of a report that includes the complete evaluation of critical product features, how effective its key solutions are, its prime functionalities, how well it can serve end users, the key performance indicators if any, and others. Also, detailed reports on system stability, usability, functionalities, compliances, etc., should be analyzed for optimum results.Â
Step 8. Fix, retest, launch
After getting the output from UAT, developers need to work on specific areas to improve them to make the product compatible for the target audience to use. It is important to have a transparent planning process that involves several teams such as testers, developers, project managers, and others so that there is no gap in understanding the course of the respective roles and responsibilities.Â
Starting from project managers to business analysts, proper collaboration, communication, and knowledge & information sharing are needed to execute successful user acceptance testing, fixing, retesting, and launch.
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Benefits of UAT
UAT has unlimited benefits, and developing a user-centric product is just one of them. Let’s look at the key benefits of UAT:
Benefits of UAT
1. Competitive product development
User acceptance testing not only checks for bugs or errors and helps assess how efficiently a product solves a specific problem statement. It gives a complete idea about how its core features and solutions are doing and how well they can meet specific requirements. For instance, to develop a grocery delivery app that promises delivery within 10 minutes and order tracking, the purpose of UAT is not to look for errors but to assess how well the features work.Â
This gives better scope to improve existing product features and functionalities, and thereby the overall product. It also helps in developing a product with competitive features and solutions that fits the current market better.
2. Better customer experience
Improving customer experience is one of the ultimate goals for any product, and user acceptance testing can help you achieve that. Since this testing is entirely focused on how well the product can accommodate user requirements, or how satisfied they can be while using the product, it helps bridge the gap between product offerings and customer expectations. As a result, the customer experience gets improved manifold once the final product is launched.
3. Higher ROI
By opting for user acceptance testing and developing the product accordingly, one can obtain a higher return on investment (ROI) from the product. Since the final product is well-equipped with all the features and performance metrics as targeted, very low maintenance, modification, or upgradation cost would be needed for the product.Â
Besides, user acceptance testing helps launch a highly user-centric product, which results in a higher customer retention rate, lifecycle values, and satisfaction rate. This also leads to a lower attrition rate and drives word-of-mouth promotion of the product. All these altogether help lower investments and optimize ROI.Â
4. Enhanced product usability
As the product is developed by taking into account user perspectives, the usability score of the final product is much higher than the ones developed without user acceptance testing. The better usability of the product helps it sustain the competitive market longer and helps the product leverage its extensive use cases at its best.
See More: What Is TDD (Test Driven Development)? Process, Importance, and Limitations
UAT Best Practices
To make the most out of user acceptance testing, you must adopt UAT best practices. Below are some that can help you build better products and quickly align with your business goals.
UAT Best Practices
1. Research & identify your target audience
The success of your user acceptance testing process majorly depends on how well you can identify your target audience. It is a good practice to conduct market research and target your intended audience based on your product category, its ecosystem, target global & regional markets, leading entities and their respective audiences, etc.Â
Doing market research will help you identify your target audience and understand their purchase patterns, behavioral patterns toward your competitors, market trends, demand forecasts, and other crucial factors. This will help you focus on a specific and appropriate target audience and have better insights into their requirements.
2. Create a proper testing plan
One of the common mistakes businesses make is not creating a proper plan before starting user acceptance testing. You must plan everything beforehand, starting from the duration of the testing process to the steps to be taken or what kind or output reports need to be generated and analyzed. This will help you speed up the process, streamline relevant workflows, and more importantly, get better results from UAT.Â
3. Keep the standards & protocols ready
It is a good practice to list out the rules, regulations, and compliances, and keep their respective acceptance criteria ready. One can also share them with the user acceptance testing group so that they can have a clearer idea of the acceptance criteria. For instance, if you are developing an automated billing platform, it is recommended to list out the robust security compliances, including PCI DSS, SSL certificate, and others.Â
Similarly, certain protocols and compliances need to be adhered to for various products. As such, it is always recommended to do your research and list them out to use during user acceptance testing and the following development process.
Takeaway
User acceptance testing is highly useful in developing a competitive product to help you align with your overall product and business goals. The above in-depth guide will help you understand it better and follow the right steps to execute the plan. The rest depends on your specific set of requirements, goals, future targets, and other product-specific goals.
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