Effective User Acceptance Testing

About this Course

This course will guide you in making UAT truly effective on your projects. It will identify the people who should be involved, the things those people should be doing, and when and how those activities should be done. If you are a member of a development team, this course will help you to make the best possible use of UAT in your development projects. If you are a Customer or End User, it will equip you to be an effective User Acceptance Tester.

Audience Profile

Primary audience for this course are:

• End Users - To equip you to perform Acceptance Testing
• Customers - To enable you to formalize your acceptance of software systems
• Product Owners on Agile teams - To fortify your Sprint Reviews
• Project Managers - To enable you to make the best use of UAT in your projects
• Business Analysts - To prepare you to plan for and collaborate with UAT
• Software Testers - To enable you to participate in and support UAT

At Course Completion

Upon completing this course, students will be able to:

• Develop an understanding about basic concepts associated with User Acceptance Testing
• See how UAT applies to the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC)
• Recognize benefits of improved quality of deployed software using User Acceptance Testing
• Identify the key roles, activities and deliverables which make up User Acceptance Testing
• Use a Business Use Case to define scenarios for testing
• Create a UAT test plan and write UAT test cases with associated test data
• Understand the process for testing functional and non-functional requirements
• Identify the challenges of testing vendor-supplied applications

*Delivered by ASPE, ICAgile Member Organization

Course Outline

I. What UAT Is and Is Not

• We will begin by describing how UAT differs from other software testing and how it fits into various software development lifecycles (including Waterfall and Agile). Along the way, we'll define a variety of key terms and identify the players.

II. Understanding the Business Need

• Business Need has many dimensions from correct computations to ease of use. We will explore each of those dimensions so you can ensure that your UAT addresses each of them in an appropriate way.

III. What Could Go Wrong?

• Of all the things we could test, which should we focus on? We will apply Risk-Based testing to focus our UAT where it will be most valuable.

IV. "U" is for User

• Effective UAT includes testing from the standpoint of all of the users (both active and passive ones). We will discuss ways to identify all of the users and ensure that their viewpoints are included in our UAT.

V. Incremental UAT

• UAT is usually the final gate before deployment, but any problems found at that point in the project can be costly and time-consuming to correct. So we will introduce an incremental approach to UAT that can be integrated into any software development lifecycle (even Waterfall). This incremental approach enables you to identify issues earlier (when they are easier to fix), and reduces the likelihood of unpleasant surprises at the project's end.

VI. Preparing Test Data

• Good tests require appropriate test data. We will discuss how to identify and prepare test data that will enable good Acceptance Testing. Along the way we will discuss the limitations, dangers and (in some cases) illegality of using production data for testing, and we will look at options for addressing those issues.

VII. The Acceptance Test Plan

• As the old adage says, "Fail to plan; plan to fail." The plans for UAT will be different from those for other testing activities. We will provide guidance for UAT plans, including how to find the "sweet spot" of providing enough guidance to ensure effective and repeatable tests, while enabling the testers to exercise the system as they will use it after it is deployed.

VIII. Performing UAT

• Testing is more than just using a computer. We will provide guidance for how Acceptance Testers should operate while performing UAT. We will discuss following UAT plans as well as going beyond them to explore how the system works. We will also discuss evaluating test results, reporting issues and raising questions.

IX. "A" is For Acceptance

• We will finish with a discussion of deciding if the system is acceptable or not. We will explore this both from each tester's perspective, and for UAT as a whole. Along the way, we will talk about "minor" defects, unresolved issues, and what it means for the system to be "good enough" in a particular context.