Best Practices For  User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

3. Have a well structured UAT management system

For a smooth UAT phase, you need to choose the right tools. UAT management tools should a perfect mix of team collaboration and bug tracking features. Easy filtering options, an efficient reporting dashboard, and traceability matrix comparing requirements and results and security are the main features you need to look at when selecting the UAT management tool.

A management tool that completes the loop right from recording the actions of actual testers(users) to generating reports to update stakeholders on the status of tests. Thus engaging them all in decisions.

4. Identify stakeholders who truly own acceptance

Stakeholders are a great source for new ideas as well as uncertainty. Identifying key stakeholders at the time of defining requirements is important. If your stakeholders are not satisfied then the project is not a success. But, all the stakeholders are not equally authoritative and concerned. During the course of the project, you work closely with different stakeholder groups and subgroups. That is when you understand who dominates the flow of ideas among the stakeholders. These stakeholders are the ones whom you can depend on when it comes to user acceptance testing. At this stage, you cannot change the course of action. Only nitty-gritty can be taken up for resolution. So you need to choose and pick the right stakeholders.

5. Create user stories based on business requirements and scenarios

User acceptance testing can be an eye-opener if the right set of users are targeted. To target the expected users, user scenarios need to be created in sync with the business requirements. In short, you can say it like user stories are nothing but well-explained business requirements. Bill Wake’s INVEST model clearly defines what a good user story should be like.

6. Clearly define acceptance criteria

Before proceeding with the user acceptance tests, it’s necessary to define the event that you would consider a success. What would define that the product passed/failed the acceptance test? Figures and numbers need to be researched so as to set a satisfactory scale for the UAT observations. If not then The whole exercise may go in vain, without reaching a solution. To reach a consensus and to mark boundaries, the acceptance criteria serves as the base.

For example, the Acceptance criteria for the feedback form for the given use case would be-

Use Case:

“As a website user, I want to be able to submit feedback. So that the website owners can consider my opinion or concern during future website updates.”

Acceptance criteria:

“Scenario: User submits feedback form with the valid data

“Given I’m in a role of logged-in or guest user
When I open the Feedback page
Then the system shows me the Submit Feedback form containing “Email”,“Name” and “Comment” fields which are required
When I fill in the “Email” field with a valid email address
And I fill in the “Name” field with my name
And I fill in the “Comment” field with my comment
And I click the “Submit Feedback” button
Then the system submits my feedback
And the system shows the “You’ve successfully submitted your feedback” flash message
And the system clears the fields of the Submit Feedback form”

Conclusion

“It takes humility to seek feedback. It takes wisdom to understand it, analyze it, and appropriately act on it.” — Stephen Covey

Effective UAT lets you validate-Is it solving the problem, it is intended to solve in real-life? Are your assumptions close to reality? Is it going to make money? Can it be launched? and much more. So, make an informed decision to plan, execute, analyze, and enhance this phase of the development life cycle.

Client/User inputs are a crucial part of the project lifecycle. zipBoard makes it easy to manage and track all this User acceptance testing feedback so that your team can collaborate better. Clients/users can annotate on designs, live websites and HTML prototypes and add comments. You can track changes and get everyone in sync on your team. Be it a designer, developer or manager, zipBoard is easy enough and useful for everyone in the team.