What is UAT and UAT Testing Meaning?

This testing type of work is essential because no developer can fully understand the business specifics of each new client, for testers writing all the necessary test cases is unrealistic by themself. Besides, creating a unique user journey may be quite difficult because what is clear for one person may be difficult for another.

UAT is the final stage and the end of the software development process, after which real users and the customer make their final verdict regarding the compliance of the program with user and business requirements.

Although QA testing and UAT are parts of the same process, there are some differences, which only confirm their importance.

Benefits UAT for Business side

— What is UAT and its purpose?
— What is the meaning of UAT?
— Why Conduct UAT User Acceptance Testing?

If you still have doubts about user acceptance testing being a necessary stage in the testing process, let’s look at it from the perspective of the benefits your team and company will gain.

• Increased satisfaction of users. UAT testing aims to verify that the system can perform its functions effectively in real-world conditions. It ensures that the software solution allows users to solve their intended problems, operates smoothly, and delivers a positive user experience. Consumers will highly appreciate an app that possesses all these qualities.
• Profit growth. User acceptance testing involves obtaining valuable feedback from the UAT team. This allows the development team to consider all the preferences of real users and create a software product that fully meets their requirements. Such an approach to software development increases the app’s value in the eyes of your clients, making it more sought after and, consequently, boosting your profitability.
• Cost reduction. UAT helps avoid unsuccessful product launches due to functionality and usability issues. Consequently, you won’t have to increase the project budget by spending on fixing defects during the production stage.

If you want to achieve the above goals, it is necessary to understand the peculiarities of organizing and conducting UAT.

What is User Acceptance Testing and its Types

User acceptance testing (UAT) is a broad term encompassing several types of tests, each aimed at verifying specific aspects of the software:

• Contract acceptance testing — involves checking the digital product against the acceptance criteria outlined in the contract.
• Regulation acceptance testing — ensures compliance with security requirements, government regulations, and legislative norms throughout the development process.
• Operational testing — evaluates the quality of the software product before its release into production.

Also, the realm of acceptance testing includes:

• Alpha testing — can be seen as an initial stage of UAT testing or a form of preparation for beta testing. It is characterized by the fact that the user acceptance test is performed by an internal test team using real-world scenarios resembling actual conditions. Testers may include product owners, business analysts, and others. Once they confirm that the product aligns with business requirements and performs its intended tasks, the process can move on to the next stage.
• Beta testing — involves an external UAT team, typically consisting of non-technical specialists who are real users. This final stage of testing occurs before the solution is commercially released into production.

Note: that the UAT process uses black-box testing because end users do not get information about the system’s internal structure but simply interact with it and see what the result will be. The only exception is alpha testing, where the white-box approach can also be used.

User Acceptance Testing Best Practices

What is the first step? UAT planning, essentially, is not much different from preparing for any other type of it, and it consists of the following stages:

#1. Analyzing the functional and business requirements of the product

Functional requirements are the criteria that software must meet in terms of the functions it performs. Let’s consider an example of such a requirement for the payment capabilities of an e-commerce website. User requirement would sound like this: “Integrate PayPal, Payoneer, Visa, and Mastercard payment systems.”

As for business requirements, they stem from the company’s broader goals. Business requirement for the same e-commerce website could be formulated as follows: “A customer should have four payment options.”

Having clear acceptance criteria will give you an understanding of what needs to be tested.

After completing UAT testing, you can analyze whether the software fulfills its functions fully and helps the company achieve its goals.

#2. Creating technical documentation based on user acceptance testing definition

To ensure that the testing process follows a well-defined plan, it is important to document all the project information before it begins, based on user acceptance testing definition. This includes the testing strategy, test cases and test scenarios, entry and exit criteria, and so on. In the following sections, we will delve into some types of documents that are used in UAT.

#3. Choosing the timing and type of testing

User acceptance testing (UAT) can take different places in the software development life cycle, depending on the development methodology used by the team. For example, in the Waterfall approach, acceptance testing represents the final stage of developing a digital product, whereas Agile teams need to conduct it after each iteration. The advantage of Agile approach is that the test results can be used to continuously improve the product throughout the project’s lifespan.

As for the type of testing, it needs to be determined based on the requirements of the software solution. For example, you may need to verify the product’s compliance with functional or non-functional requirements.

#4. Building UAT team

We briefly mentioned that the composition of the test team may vary depending on the user acceptance stage. If you plan to perform alpha testing, you can involve internal company specialists. We are not talking about professional testers – these can be stakeholders, product owners, business analysts, etc. Real customers are best suited for beta testing, which you can find on crowdsourcing platforms or attract using landing pages and messages on social networks.

#5. Choosing an optimal test management tool

In today’s software market, many tools are available to optimize the whole process of UAT testing.

Among them are specialized crowdsourcing platforms, test exploratory tools, which allows you to take screenshots and leave comments on them.

Acceptance testing features can also be found in project management and defect tracking systems like Jira or Trello and in Test Management Systems (TMS). An example of our test management tool testomat.io It offers the following capabilities:

• Limited free subscription forever. Сheck what’s included by following the link.
• One-click reporting of errors to developers through integration with leading project management systems.
• Quick creation of test cases using autocomplete for steps.
• Generating detailed reports on testing results of the work.
• Access to in-depth analytics for a comprehensive understanding of how the product aligns with business requirements.
• One-click import or export of test cases.
• Easy automation of tests, if needed.
• Engaging stakeholders and many other specialists in the project, which aligns with one of the key principles of Agile.

#6. User training

User training is needed for performing tasks and filling out the User Acceptance Testing Checklist. Since even people without technical knowledge can participate in acceptance testing, the results’ accuracy will depend on how responsibly you approach the training of your future UAT team. This process involves familiarizing them with the technology used for conducting UAT, specialized tools, testing objectives, creating bug reports, the principles of filling out the User Acceptance Testing Checklist, etc. The responsibility for conducting educational activities lies with the managers of your QA teams.

#7. Running tests

Once all the previous stages have been completed, you can directly conduct UAT. It’s important to remember that non-professionals will run the tests, so it is crucial to control the execution process and explain to the team in advance what actions are required at each testing stage. Additionally, providing users with real data is critically important. This will allow them to understand the product accurately and obtain the most precise results.

#8. Gathering feedback and analyzing test reports

Upon completing the acceptance testing process, developers need to gather feedback from testers, organize all the information, and analyze the collected data. It is important to generate detailed testing reports. This can be done manually or with the help of specialized tools. One advantage of the latter approach is accessing the percentage of passed and failed tests, often presented as graphs or diagrams. This visualization helps in understanding and simplifying the interpretation of the testing results.

#9. Fixing bugs and retesting

The readiness of your development team to quickly and effectively fix bugs reported by users plays a crucial role here. Promptly reporting issues can be facilitated by a test management tool like Testomat.io, which seamlessly integrates with project management systems like Jira, GitHub, and Azure. In the TMS, you can easily link defects to user stories with a click, directly from pages containing tests, test runs, or testing reports.

Once the bugs have been fixed, the software product should undergo re-validation. This ensures that the app meets the user acceptance criteria.

UAT Templates and Examples of Test Cases for an Effective Workflow

Like in other types of testing, before conducting UAT, creating a test plan that will contain essential information about the upcoming test run is necessary, and familiarizing yourself with user acceptance testing examples. Also, User Acceptance Testing Template & User Acceptance Testing Examples for an effective workflow are essential, they looks like:

• Project Name/Release Version.
• Testing Objectives. This section should answer the question: Why are we creating this software product?
• Change Log. It includes the date of document changes, the author, the reason for the changes, the current version number, and the approver’s details.
• Introduction to the Document. This section provides information about the work done on the project before UAT and may describe the types of testing to be performed.
• Test Items. Here, all testing objects should be listed, including modules and functions to be tested and those not to be tested, etc.
• Detailed Action Plan. It should specify the types of tests executed after conducting UAT, how bugs will be documented, and the steps to be taken for their resolution.
• Environment: Characteristics, specifically hardware and software requirements for the environment.
• Entry Criteria. The conditions under which the test will be considered successfully completed.
• Test Cases. A list of required tests with detailed step descriptions. We will discuss how to write them below.
• Exit Criteria. The conditions that, when met, will be sufficient for completing user acceptance testing.
• UAT Team. Here, the list of testers and their areas of responsibility should be specified.
• Different Tools Used for UAT. These can be test management systems, project management tools, and issue-tracking tools.
• End of Testing. This final section of the plan contains information about factors influencing business decisions and the individuals responsible for completing UAT.

This document can be fully customized to meet the needs of each team.

Now let’s discuss how to write test cases for User Acceptance Testing (UAT). These documents serve as instructions on how a specific function of the software product should be tested. Different templates and tools can assist in writing them, providing a list of mandatory fields to fill in, although they may vary slightly depending on the end goals.

What does a test case consist of in the UAT?

• ID
• Description
• Test steps
• Expected result
• Actual result
• Status

Below are examples of template test cases used in the most popular project management systems.

You can also write test cases in Excel/Google Spreadsheets or Microsoft Word/Google Docs documents. In this case, the document template will look like this:

UAT Meaning and Message about its Results: Creating a High-Quality Report

The final stage of any QA process is analyzing the identified bugs and transmitting them to the development team for prompt resolution. Detailed reports about test results will assist in this process. Such a document should include a comparison of the obtained results with the user acceptance criteria, along with several other essential fields:

• Date of report compilation
• Number and status of tests passed
• Information about identified defects, including their severity and priority of resolution
• Action plan for resolving the issues and deadlines for each

Please note that the UAT results report should be concise and clear, ensuring that it is understandable to technically proficient team members and stakeholders, project manager, product owners, etc. It is exactly where our test management system comes into a play

Final Thoughts

User Acceptance Testing is a crucial stage in ensuring the quality of your final product. This is the only type of testing that will provide you with reliable information on how the software performs in a production environment while interacting with real users. To conduct effective UAT, it is important to prepare for this process thoroughly. Create a detailed testing plan and test cases, choose a user-friendly test management tool, and compile a clear report on the results.

When selecting a tool for conducting tests, consider its capabilities in terms of integration with bug-tracking systems, test case creation, and report generation. Our test management solution offers advanced features in all of these areas. Contact our manager for detailed information on utilizing our test management system to optimize your UAT processes.

The post User Acceptance Testing (UAT) Templates and Real-Life Examples appeared first on testomat.io.

When defining acceptance criteria, first of all, it should be mentioned that, together with the user story, they are the main ways of documenting the requirements for the developed product. The relationship between the user story and acceptance criteria is fundamental to Agile planning, ensuring that all team members understand what needs to be delivered.

In this article, we decided to figure out how to write good acceptance criteria for user stories. Let’s brief guide to acceptance criteria terminology (AC, using abbreviation to terminology)

What are the acceptance criteria in testing?

User story acceptance criteria are a list of conditions that an app must meet in order to fully fulfill the tasks assigned to it, highlighting the necessity of writing acceptance criteria that align with the end user’s needs. The software product must meet the target audience’s expectations and not contradict the main market application trends; in a word, it must be accepted by the general public and the direct customer.

It is worth noting that ACs are not repeated from one user story to another, and their task is to determine the options for feature usage by the end user.

AC are important for the development team to accurately understand the customer’s vision because each person may have a different perception of the same goal in software development (SDLC). And, accordingly, a different approach to its solution.

User story VS acceptance criteria

In contrast to the acceptance criterion, the user story describes a specific software function from the user’s point of view. The acceptance criteria’ purpose is to clearly articulate the task that the software product must perform in order to fulfil the client’s needs.

Here’s some background. In 2001, Ron Jeffries wrote about the Three C’s of the user story:

• Card – stories are traditionally written on notecards, and these cards can be annotated with extra details
• Conversation – details behind the story come out through conversations with the Product Owner
• Confirmation – acceptance tests confirm the story is finished and working as intended.

In a workflow based on the Agile methodology, user stories depict the project work yet to be performed by the team. Let’s look at the examples below

Typically, user stories are written in the following format:

“As (the type of user) – I want (to do something) – so that I (can achieve a certain result, goal, or benefit).”

Although some teams in the same situation use abbreviated syntax, which speeds up the process of writing a user story.

In abbreviated format, the user story will look like this:

“User type – feature – result.” Logically, this result is our acceptance criteria

All features that should be present in the program make up the product backlog. It is developed by the Project Manager(PM) or Product Owner(PO is the person who represents the customer for the thing you’re developing), taking into account the priority of implementing one or another functionality.

Acceptance criteria VS the definition of done

People are sometimes unsure of the difference between acceptance criteria and the definition of done. The key difference is that the definition of done applies to all your work, whereas acceptance criteria are specific to individual stories.

Example acceptance criteria

To illustrate the importance of well-written acceptance criteria, consider the next comparison of product filter categories on the e-shop site:

A client approached you to develop an e-commerce platform specializing in selling devices. They want users to be able to search for the products they want in certain categories (smartphones, tablets, laptops, etc.). The task can be understood ambiguously if you don’t write the acceptance criteria.

The first user story acceptance criteria example is to implement the search function in such a way that customers would have to specify the category of interest manually.

The second example is that the customer could imply selecting the desired product category from a ready-made catalog.

The result: due to the lack of clearly formulated AC, the ready-made software does not meet the client’s expectations.

Why do teams need clearly written acceptance criteria?

The fact that all team members need effective acceptance criteria is an undeniable fact, and we have already made sure of that. Let’s talk more about the benefits you can get from well-written acceptance criteria:

• Confirmation of user story completion. How does a developer know that a digital solution is working properly, that is, the user story is complete? Without clear criteria, it would be very difficult to do so.
• Reaching an understanding between a customer and a developer. Documented acceptance criteria will allow for meeting the expectations of both parties. The team of specialists working on the project clearly understands the client’s vision, and they, for their part, know in advance what they will get from the software solution.
• Optimal workflow planning. Given the fact that each user story is an unfinished task facing the team of developers, its exact description by creating acceptance criteria allows you to understand how important each such task is and to properly prioritize the work.
• Reliable basis for the acceptance tests. Clearly written acceptance criteria can be used as the basis for subsequent product testing. For this purpose, the result of checking AC and compliance of a particular function with it is used. There can be two options for this result: Pass or Fail.

Properly written user stories and acceptance criteria greatly simplify the testing and development process, so do not disregard this format for documenting the requirements for a future app.

Who is responsible for acceptance criteria?

It is a mistake to think that only business analysts can create acceptance criteria. The necessary knowledge and skills should guide all Agile team members and even the customer in this matter. Let’s look at a few options for who writes acceptance criteria:

Client-side presents competent personnel in the writing project documentation

This is a great way to build close cooperation between the client and the technical team. However, you should consider that even if the client has some experience in development and testing, it is still better to check the AC written by them before starting to work on the project. They should be clearly formulated and strictly correspond to the development process.

The responsibility for writing the AC is on the development team

If the customer decided to entrust the creation of the criteria to specialists, this task can be undertaken by any team member who knows the intricacies of implementing the app functionality and is aware of the technology stack used:

• QA Analyst
• Project Manager (PM)
• Tester (QA engineer or QA cordinstor)
• Business Analyst (BA).

Whoever is writing the acceptance criteria should do it in time, not before the start of development. This will help you better understand what you should work on first and what tools to choose to implement the necessary functions. Additionally, these criteria should be aligned with the relevant user stories to ensure that they meet the end-users’ expectations and requirements effectively.

BDD way: Agile acceptance criteria Given/When/Then

Based on the tasks set before the developers and the existing goals of the project, you can choose one of three varieties of AC:

• scenario-oriented acceptance criteria
• rule-oriented criteria
• custom acceptance criteria formats

The first two formats are the most common, so let’s talk about them in more detail. The scenario-oriented format aligns closely with user stories, helping to ensure that development matches end-user needs. The rule-oriented acceptance criteria format focuses more on technical specifications and rules. Both methods aid in creating clear, testable acceptance criteria to guide the development process.

Scenario-oriented approach

This approach is popular because it can significantly reduce the time required to create test cases. After all, the app’s behavior will be described in advance. It is based on the principles of Behavior Driven Development, and the main distinguishing features are a clear structure and consistency.

Scenario-oriented AC involves writing using the Given/When/Then sequence, and it looks like this:

User Story:

As a user, I want to be able to log in through my Google account to get quick access to my account in the app

Scenario: Quick access to the system. 
Given: a user enters the login page. 
When: a user presses the Google button. 
Then: a system offers to select the needed account. 
And: a user enters their account information.

Rule-oriented AC

If you describe functions in your user stories that are difficult to fit into the GWT framework, or the end user doesn’t need such detailed test cases, you can choose another approach to writing acceptance criteria, which is called Rule-oriented. As the name implies, this acceptance criteria format is a list of rules arranged as a bulleted list. In practice, it looks like this:

User Story:

As a user, I want to be able to enter the name of the city and the area in the search field so that I can find a suitable rented apartment.

Acceptance criteria of search interface:

How to write acceptance criteria?

Some recommendations from the professionals. Regardless of what agile development methodology you practice and what project management system you work with, there are general guidelines for writing AC that will help optimize the development process.

• Be sure to add acceptance criteria for all user stories. Remember that each user story is an unfulfilled task of the Agile team. And acceptance criteria clarify exactly how this task should be implemented. So you need to write at least one criterion.
• Create AC before you start software development. We want to draw your attention once again: writing AC after the start of the project will not allow you to understand customer expectations at the very beginning of cooperation. It can lead to problems in the implementation of the customer’s vision. Therefore, define acceptance criteria first and start development based on them.
• Avoid overly specific criteria. If you imply a specific solution for each AC, this leaves no room for developers to maneuver. In addition, other user behavior options may be missed in the testing process, greatly increasing the likelihood of failure.
• Too broad acceptance criteria are also bad. Effective acceptance criteria define for developers how much code to write and when it’s time to stop. If you make them too extensive, the user story will become incomprehensible and will be of no value to the team.
• Write independently testable AC. When writing the criteria, leave the option to test each of them independently from the others. Once you get a result (Pass or Fail), you can use them as the basis for acceptance testing.
• Avoid technical details. One of the benefits of the BDD methodology is the ability for non-technical experts to participate in the process of creating and testing software. This is achieved because all project documentation is written in an understandable language that is available to business analysts, product owners, and even customers. Adhere to this principle, including when writing AC.
• Consult with the client. Take into account that the options for using a particular feature may be formulated differently by the customer and developers. Therefore, when compiling the acceptance criteria, be sure to clarify the opinion of all other stakeholders and reach consensus on the vision of the implementation of the software functionality.
• Don’t write too much AC for one user story. The optimal number of criteria for one uncompleted task is no more than three. If there are significantly more (from six), it makes sense to divide the user story into several. This practice allows for faster delivery, and faster feedback and minimizes the risk of failure.

Despite the fact that when writing test cases in BDD format, you use clear, human-readable language, creating AC can be difficult. The above recommendations will help you avoid documentation errors and simplify the development process.

As you noticed, we a little bit expanded the well-known INVEST model criteria of Agile user stories:

• Independent
• Negotiable
• Valuable
• Estimable
• Small
• Testable

What should be in acceptance criteria, and what’s best to avoid?

In addition to the above recommendations, there are rules for formulating good acceptance criteria that will help make them clear and thus improve cooperation both within the Agile team and between developers and customers.

#1: Avoid negative sentences

Conditions that contain the particle “not” imply that the action must not happen under any circumstances. It takes too much time to check this condition, which makes it almost impossible. The best way out is to rewrite the user story or AC without the negation.

For example, acceptance criteria:

“The system must not fail”

Is better rewritten as: “The system must be available 85% of the time.”

#2: Refuse to use the passive voice

If the condition is written in the passive voice, it may not be clear who should perform a particular action. This will lead to AC ambiguity. Therefore, it is better to use the active voice when the subject performs an action (the predicate).

For example, acceptance criteria:

“A link to the entered email address must be sent” does not have the clarity you want.

It would be better changed to “The system sends a link to the entered email address.”

#3: Use nouns instead of pronouns

The use of pronouns is another reason why the acceptance criteria can become ambiguous. This is especially true when pronouns replace elements that appear in other requirements.

For example:

Scenario: User forgot password.

Given: The user goes to the login page.
When: The user clicks the Forgot Password button.
And: The user enters an email address to get a link to recover it.

In this example it is better to write the last sentence without using a pronoun:

And: enters an email address to get a link to recover the password.

#3: Try to use fewer conjunctions

If you use in acceptance criterion “and,” “or,” “as well as” “but” in most cases, it means that such AC can be divided into several. That is, to make it clearer.

For example:

Given: I am a user who has logged out, and I am on the login page

In this AC, the use of the conjunction “and” is inappropriate. It is more appropriate to split it into two criteria:

Given: I am a user who is logged out
And: I am on the login page

#4: Set achievable requirements

Using the words “always”, “never”, “all”, “100%” when formulating the criteria will not allow you to check such a condition, because it is almost impossible to achieve absolute values.

Let’s return to the example of a system that must not fail.

The requirement “The system must always be available” is unattainable.

It is better to formulate this condition more objectively: “The system must be 90% available.”

Wrap-up: Make acceptance criteria part of your user stories

We hope that the acceptance criteria examples and recommendations in this material will help you in writing good acceptance criteria and conducting effective acceptance tests.

Also, allow development teams to reach consensus with customers and develop software that fully meets the needs of end users.

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