Objectives of acceptance testing
Acceptance testing, like system testing, typically focuses on the behavior and capabilities of a whole
system or product. Objectives of acceptance testing include:
- Establishing confidence in the quality of the system as a whole
- Validating that the system is complete and will work as expected
- Verifying that functional and non-functional behaviors of the system are as specified
- Acceptance testing may produce information to assess the system’s readiness for deployment and use by the customer (end-user). Defects may be found during acceptance testing, but finding defects is often not an objective, and finding a significant number of defects during acceptance testing may in some cases be considered a major project risk. Acceptance testing may also satisfy legal or regulatory requirements or standards.
Common forms of acceptance testing include the following:
- User acceptance testing
- Operational acceptance testing
- Contractual and regulatory acceptance testing
- Alpha and beta testing.
User acceptance testing (UAT)
User acceptance testing of the system is typically focused on validating the fitness for use of the system by intended users in a real or simulated operational environment. The main objective is building confidence that the users can use the system to meet their needs, fulfill requirements, and perform business processes with minimum difficulty, cost, and risk.
Operational acceptance testing (OAT)
The acceptance testing of the system by operations or systems administration staff is usually performed in a (simulated) production environment. The tests focus on operational aspects, and may include:
- Testing of backup and restore
- Installing, uninstalling and upgrading
- Disaster recovery
- User management
- Maintenance tasks
Contractual and regulatory acceptance testing
Contractual acceptance testing is performed against a contract’s acceptance criteria for producing custom-developed software. Acceptance criteria should be defined when the parties agree to the contract. Contractual acceptance testing is often performed by users or by independent testers. Regulatory acceptance testing is performed against any regulations that must be adhered to, such as
government, legal, or safety regulations. Regulatory acceptance testing is often performed by users or by independent testers, sometimes with the results being witnessed or audited by regulatory agencies.
The main objective of contractual and regulatory acceptance testing is building confidence that contractual or regulatory compliance has been achieved.
Alpha and beta testing
Alpha and beta testing are typically used by developers of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software who want to get feedback from potential or existing users, customers, and/or operators before the software product is put on the market. Alpha testing is performed at the developing organization’s site, not by the development team, but by potential or existing customers, and/or operators or an independent test team. Beta testing is performed by potential or existing customers, and/or operators at their own locations. Beta testing may come after alpha testing, or may occur without any preceding alpha testing having occurred.