User acceptance testing (UAT) is a critical process in any product development cycle. It involves having your target users test and validate newly developed features or products before launch. UAT goes by other names like beta testing, application testing, end-user testing, and more. But all refer to the same concept – engaging real users to validate your solution works as expected in real-world scenarios.
UAT provides objective evidence that you have fulfilled the original requirements and specifications. It identifies any defects, gaps, or issues requiring resolution before launch. Having customers or end users perform UAT is far more valuable than internal testing alone. It gives confidence that the features deliver true value. This post will explore what effective UAT involves, who performs it when in the development cycle it occurs, key areas tested, and overall best practices.
Let’s start by understanding when UAT takes place.
When User Acceptance Testing is Performed
For products using agile or iterative development methods, UAT fits nicely into the sprint process. The sprint cycle typically involves phases like planning, design, development, testing, review, and retrospective. In this case, UAT occurs during the testing phase which comes at the end of each sprint. The goal is to validate that all user stories and features completed in the sprint work as expected before being marked done.
UAT also takes place alongside final quality assurance and performance testing before releasing or launching a new product, feature set, or update. This provides one last validation check before going live. Sometimes only select users are engaged for sprint UAT, while a broader pool participates in pre-launch activities. When performed at both points, UAT first confirms individual pieces of work, then the integrated solution. Scheduling UAT windows and environment access is part of the sprint planning process.
UAT Goals and Methodology
The overall goals of UAT are straightforward – ensure that new features or products function as intended from an end-user perspective. More specifically, successful UAT validates:
- Features meet the original requirements and specifications outlined at the beginning of development.
- All core functionality works as expected across the most common use cases.
- No major bugs, defects, or issues exist that negatively impact usability and experience.
- The solution integrates well with other existing features and systems.
- The user interface and flows align with usability principles and standards.
- Performance, security, and accessibility meet benchmarks even under load.
To accomplish these goals, UAT employs a combination of scripted testing and exploratory methods. Scripted testing follows defined test cases and expected results. Exploratory testing takes a more free-form approach to finding edge cases. Usability testing focuses on UX and human factors.
The testers simulate real customer workflows and usage patterns. They work through all critical tasks and scenarios while trying to break or misuse the application. The output of UAT includes logs of all defects, subjective feedback on usability, and usage metrics indicating adoption.
Who Performs UAT
UAT involves engagement from both internal team members and external users.
Internally, product managers and designers verify features match specs and requirements. QA engineers execute scripted tests and explore edge cases.
Externally, target users from your customer personas test for real-world usage validation. For B2B, these may be friendly customers. For consumer products, volunteer public beta testers.
Specialized UAT testers are sometimes employed for complex projects, though end users always provide the most valuable perspective. Subject matter experts like customer support agents can also find use cases and workflows beyond the core team’s knowledge.
The best UAT combines both internal QA and external real-world testing. This provides comprehensive coverage and confidence.
Key Areas Tested
UAT aims to be comprehensive across all aspects of the product experience. Key areas include:
- Core functionality and use cases – Testing all primary features and workflows expected of users. Ensuring correct behavior.
- Edge cases – Testing boundary conditions and validation. Trying bad or unexpected inputs. Pushing limits of capacity.
- UI/UX interactions – Validating ease of use, clarity of language, flow between screens, and efficiency of interactions.
- Accessibility – Testing screen reader capability, keyboard navigation, high contrast modes, and other accessibility needs.
- Responsiveness – Validating behavior across different device sizes, resolutions, and orientations.
- Browser and device compatibility – Testing across intended browser versions on desktop and mobile. Covering iOS, Android, and Windows platforms.
- Performance – Load testing with simulated usage at scale, checking for latency issues under peak demand. Assessing capacity limits.
- Security – Testing authentication, access controls, permissions, SSL usage, and data protection.
- Documentation – Reviewing help content for accuracy, completeness, and usability.
Creating good UAT plans ensures adequate coverage across all priority areas with a balance of scripted and exploratory testing.
Creating UAT Plans
Strong UAT requires thoughtful plans outlining what will be tested, by whom, using what methods, and with what expected results.
For core use cases, define detailed test cases and scripts covering setup, steps, inputs, and expected outcomes. For exploratory testing, provide guides indicating areas of focus without scripted steps.
Prioritize testing core functionality over edge cases. Ensure coverage across user types and roles. Schedule adequate windows for thorough testing in a controlled environment.
The plan should also define clear UAT entrance and exit criteria. Entrance criteria cover things like features being fully developed, tested internally, properly instrumented, and monitored. Exit criteria validate all critical defects fixed and a satisfactory pass rate on test scripts.
Detailed UAT plans to ensure adequate coverage and smooth execution by testers.
UAT Reporting and Metrics
To track progress and results, UAT produces a set of reporting artifacts and metrics including:
- Defect/Bug Log – A log of all defects, bugs, errors, and gaps identified during testing. These are cataloged and assigned to owners to be fixed.
- Test Case Pass/Fail Rate – For scripted test cases, the pass or fail percentage provides an objective measure of quality and completeness.
- Usage Metrics – Analytics on how testers interact with the product provides insights into adoption, popular features, and friction points.
- Subjective Feedback – Testers are asked for subjective assessments of their experience including ease of use, relevance, likes, and dislikes.
- Screen Recordings – Test sessions are recorded to capture struggles, defects, and insights that can be shared with developers.
- Benchmarking – Platform performance is measured for latency, throughput, and scalability and compared to benchmarks.
By combining hard metrics with qualitative feedback, UAT offers a comprehensive view of the product’s readiness for launch.
Incorporating Feedback and Fixes
The feedback from UAT isn’t useful unless incorporated back into the product itself. There is a structured process for this:
- Critical defects blocking launch are fixed immediately. Fixes are retested before proceeding.
- Other defects are prioritized and scheduled for future sprints based on severity, complexity, and scope.
- Testers validate fixes to address the root cause, not just the symptoms.
- Any UX changes are incorporated per tester feedback around usability.
- Documentation is updated to reflect changes.
- Stakeholder approvals are re-obtained on UAT results before launch.
With this process, user acceptance testing improves both the current and future product development cycles based on real user data.
Benefits of Effective User Acceptance Testing
Some key benefits provided by disciplined user acceptance testing include:
- Improved product quality – UAT identifies defects and issues that internal testing often misses, improving overall quality.
- Enhanced user experience – Direct user feedback during UAT highlights usability issues and opportunities far better than assumptions.
- Reduced risk of defects post-launch – Eliminating issues before launch reduces maintenance costs and customer complaints.
- Validation of feature alignment – UAT confirms features match what users need and want.
- Increased user satisfaction – Quality products that solve real problems deliver greater adoption and loyalty.
- Confidence in release readiness – UAT provides evidence of readiness for launch or deployment.
- Accountability for teams – Following a UAT process holds teams accountable for truly satisfying users.
- Improved future practices – Insights from UAT feedback into development, strengthening it.
Overall, effective user acceptance testing directly translates into better-designed products that deliver exceptional experiences.
Conclusion
User acceptance testing is a critical phase of product development that validates your solution’s work for real users. Performing UAT with a diverse set of target customers ensures products fulfill real needs consistently across usage scenarios. This leads to higher-quality products, happier users, and more successful launches. By combining scripted test cases with exploratory testing, UAT provides well-rounded coverage and insight. Feeding these learnings back into the development cycle fosters continuous improvement and refinement of the UAT process itself. Adopting a discipline of UAT, while involving time and coordination, pays dividends through all stages of product delivery and post-launch. When done well, UAT exemplifies the voice of the customer shaping better product outcomes.
