Top 5 Practices to Go For UAT
What is User Acceptance Testing (UAT)?
It is a testing method wherein real users are involved in testing the software product or application in a real-time production environment. User feedback plays a crucial role in this testing method as it helps in knowing the team about the worth of a product or application from a user’s perspective.
Following are the five practices of UAT:
The target audience needs to be identified: The target audience needs to be identified and their unique needs and problems need to be understood. This in turn helps in making sure that there is no wastage of resources/time on something that is not of use for users.
A realistic test data and test environment needs to be prepared: The production environment should resemble by test data and environment as closely as possible. In an ideal scenario, there should be a strategic gap between the UAT environment and the QA environment. If this cannot take place, a complete refresh needs to be done before UAT, wherein the refreshed environment needs to be checked by QA professionals to make sure it is working as expected.
Proper test criteria should be developed: The QA manager or test lead or both should collaborate with QA professionals so that they can make sure that the test coverage is complete. An effective alternative to scripts and test cases is offered by checklists.
The significance of being specific: UAT test cases need to be specific, thorough and as detailed as possible. It is better to specify what accounts to use, what data to enter, the buttons that need to be clicked and the results the user should be able to see.
Bug communication standards need to be developed: There will be scenarios wherein applications will have bugs and hence the focus should be on how they are being communicated so that the issues can be quickly resolved. The bug should be created with utmost specificity.
