User Acceptance Testing
The ultimate guide
Scope
Initially, you need to determine the scope of your UAT testing through three stages.
Determine timescales
Whilst implemented at the end of projects; it is advisable to start early and engage with all teams involved to ensure UAT is on the radar and considered in their planning. Often, departments consider the challenges and defects that will arise but do not realize that UAT identifies defects for fixing and overcoming.
When determining timescales, you also need to consider where resources will need to be implemented and the overall strategy which the UAT is being implemented to achieve. Part of the planning process will involve determining why the project is being carried out and the benefit which the organization is hoping to gain from the change.
Once the benefit is realized, it must be effectively communicated to all UAT participants so they understand what they need to be looking out for whilst testing to achieve success.
Things to consider
What does the whole project look like?
What are the business’s goals?
What previous phases will the project go through?
Who is involved in the whole project?
The methodology being implemented and where UAT will be used?
The strategy and content used in previous test phases and what can be reused?
The resources set aside for fixing issues and bugs
The planned date to go live and is it flexible to allow changes?
The extent of the changes and how will they impact the business?
Analyse the change
It’s necessary to determine the scope of the project to understand the changes that the business is hoping the software will bring and the resources and time needed to test it sufficiently.
When analyzing the change, if it is a unique software a business is developing, you can communicate expectations from previous teams and phases, including development and quality assurance, to understand the software’s expectations.
If it is a cloud-based software or package being implemented, obtain data from other users via forums and other channels to gauge the scale of the testing and resources needed.
Things to consider
Significance of change
The scale of the change
Systems which will be impacted
Business teams affected and number of people who will be using the software
The existing assets affected
Input from the provider and reviews from clients
Determine impact of changes and risks
By conversing with those involved with the system, that being the system architects if developing software internally or with the software provider, determine the impact of changes on the business.
It is always important to remember that whilst the scale of a project and impacts can be closely related; it is not for certain that small changes only result in small impacts but rather result in disproportionately large impacts to the business.
Therefore, it is important to assess each change accordingly and determine its impact to efficiently plan User Acceptance Testing
Things to consider
Impact to current systems
Impact on the overall business and how affected systems can impact further impact the business
Impact to IT and other infrastructure
The risk to the business from undetected errors
Risk of timescales not being met
The scope of the testing required
As with any testing process, not all phases need to be implemented within every project, but each should be considered to achieve the best possible outcome.
Over the coming weeks, we will cover the whole approach to UAT in a step-by-step guide. if you missed our Overview read it here.
Coming up next – Strategy.
