What Is Acceptance Testing? Definition and Process

What Is Acceptance Testing?

As the name suggests, an acceptance test is software testing done by the end user. You do this to check if the product or the software is ready to launch the market with all the bugs identified and removed. 

In simple terms, acceptance testing is done at the end of a development cycle to verify if a software or product release meets the requirements specified by the client or customer. It’s conducted on a complete, integrated system to evaluate functionality, performance, and usability from the end user perspective.

For example, after wrapping up a new feature, the dev team does acceptance testing to ensure it works as intended. Or a startup finishing its minimum viable product brings in some test users to put the app through its paces before launch. You may also hear of beta testing, a form of acceptance testing where a subset of real customers evaluate a near-final product.

The goal is to catch any issues before release from the viewpoints of stakeholders and end users. Has all specified functionality been implemented correctly? Are there any bugs impacting the user experience? This final sign-off protects both the dev team and the customer.

That’s the basic rundown of acceptance testing – helping to ensure new software, websites, apps, etc., meet business and user requirements before going live.

The aim is to check whether the software is acceptable or not. It will only succeed in the acceptance test if unresolved issues and bugs exist. 

It is the final stage of testing before the product launch. After various other levels of testing and analysis in the software development life cycle. Such as requirements analysis, high and low-level design, coding, unit testing, integrated testing, and system testing. 

In terms of software performance, apart from the software’s features and functionality, it also reviews the UI experience.

The following aspects of the software form the criteria for testing and measuring the software. 

• Functionality
• Reliability 
• Performance
• Adaptability
• Installability and Upgradability
• Speed
• Data Integrity
• Confidentiality and Availability 
• Data Conversion

Acceptance Testing Components:

An acceptance test is conducted phase-wise, initiating basic tests and proceeding to the more complicated tasks.

The essential components of the acceptance test are:

• Introduction
• Test classification
• Operation conditions
• Test case ID
• Test Title
• Test Objective
• Test Procedure
• Test Schedule
• Resources
• Conclusion

How To Do Acceptance Testing?

You should follow the below guidelines during acceptance testing:

Specify Your Objectives

Your product/development team and testing participants must understand the benefits of testing comments and participation. You can use various product management tools to help in this process.

Choose the Ideal People To Join You:

Use normal test subjects with whom you regularly collaborate wherever possible. This aids in the development of a solid relationship and the receipt of more candid comments. Professional software testers are widely available. 

However, they do not represent actual users because this is their primary job. Launching a beta version of your product and recruiting existing customers to test it is a good strategy. It is good because real-life consumers use the product in a real-world setting.

Test Assignment Conception

You’ll need to develop particular test assignments to test every aspect of the software. These test strategies should depend on real-world user interactions. Remember that your users aren’t programmers or businesspeople. Therefore, write instructions in plain English.

What To Check for in the Results

Functional and UI/UX issues should focus on your acceptance testing. Are all of the app’s buttons, drop-downs, and sliders functional? 

Are there any overlapping components that hinder you from scrolling? Do all CSS styles render appropriately, or do they make it difficult for users to navigate the app?

Make the Feedback Clear

You must comprehend the feedback you ultimately receive from testers. Again, your participants may express themselves in non-technical terms. 

Various templates are available to enable you to create a UAT feedback form. The top 20 for this year are listed below.

Why Is Acceptance Testing Done?

A request for a change, an update, or a new feature gets made and implemented. The unit and integration tests were completed, and everything is working.

However, once it is made public, severe issues arise.

Rework and re-testing aren’t the most expensive repercussions when this happens. It is the loss of one’s reputation.

The software can be entirely functional since objectives are not adequately delineated or effectively conveyed to developers. That is from a technological aspect but still needs to be improved (a widespread problem with evolving projects). 

Other situations may have led to new code. That worked in all the virtual deployment models that were not performing well in a changing real-world scenario.

User acceptance testing (UAT) protects against releasing unfinished, ineffective, or malfunctioning software. It accomplishes this by responding to “Have we created what our customers want?”

UAT tests are well-designed, of excellent quality, and comprehensive. Also, precisely represents user requirements, detecting issues that would go undetected in integration or unit tests. 

Lastly, UAT tests provide a high-level perspective of the system’s functionality.

Conclusion

A report concludes the test. The result is either to accept the system for launch or not to accept and recommend modifications. 

The acceptance testing report summarizes the test results, variations in behavior, a summary of remedial measures, and an approval decision.