UAT: Is it also a "group test?

	Viktor grebenyuk is a quality assurance expert and testing manager with over eight years of experience in testing complex (mainly in the financial sector) systems and applications. His rich experience allows him to compare different test tools and methods, highlight their advantages and disadvantages, and strive to find the correct method that best suits each specific case.
	Natalya serdyuchenko has been engaged in software development and testing since 2004. She has worked with clients such as Motorola, Sony Ericsson, and Huawei as a test engineer, test Manager, and chief analyst. Her current job is related to the banking industry. Natalya has a strong interest in improving the testing process, especially the UAT process.

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The User Acceptance Test (UAT) looks like a "group test" mainly because the person executing the test is not a test expert. These people may be professionals in their own business areas,Software TestingThe principles and skills are not very well understood. You may argue about the value of UAT and its position in SDLC, but once you decide to do UAT, you must solve how to make non-testers (such as Enterprise Users) responsible for this matter. In addition, you may need to consider a series of questions: how to combine UAT with existing testing programs in your organization;Create UAT Test CasesAnd what the test cases should look like; and who is responsible for UAT management. The purpose of this article is to reduce the key issues you may find when organizing and managing UAT on a project.

　　How to enable non-testers (enterprise users) to effectively perform UAT
First, if you want to force non-testers (we call them UAT executors) to effectively perform UAT, you must teach them how to do this. You can use any related training strategies (online training, face-to-face meetings, etc.) to provide an overview of the UAT Method for project selection or general UAT programs approved in your organization, and highlight their responsibilities in UAT. Once this information is available, it also facilitates sharing the basic knowledge of software testing and provides them with a demonstration of the testing tool that will be used in UAT. In addition, it may be necessary to present them an overview of end-to-end business processes. In fact, some UAT executors may not fully master the end-to-end business processes, but their daily work is often limited to the use of an independent part of the tested solution (SUT. Remember that even after you have passed all the training courses and learned all the materials you provided to them at the beginning of your project, UAT still requires continuous consulting and support. Be prepared at any time and keep in touch with UAT executors. Remember that you may need to repeat initial training for some people in some cases. Even if some enterprise users have participated in UAT in the past and have experience, they still need to provide at least one limited training course, because some aspects of the UAT process may vary with projects. In some cases, sharing only The UAT method or testing technology is not enough for UAT executors to effectively perform UAT-the most difficult thing is to motivate people. UAT executors should clearly understand the purpose of UAT and their responsibilities and the value they are adding. As you know, motivated talents can achieve more results, so if you want to gain as many advantages as possible from your UAT, you should try your best to make these people not only follow formal procedures, but also be willing to participate in UAT. In this way, you will not only gain benefits but also experience the fun-it will be easier to cooperate with these dynamic UAT executors next time. In any situation (even if you are not able to provide any extra motivation for these people), please make sure that you set the process in a way that will even benefit people simply by following the formal steps.
In this case, several suggestions will help you, such:
? Provide UAT executors with all the information they may need in UAT (about the test environment, getting apps under test, how to use the test tool manual, contact list, and so on);
? Propose a clear communication plan between UAT performer and other UAT team members;
? Develop a clear and easy-to-understand program that can be used in The UAT process to solve the UAT performer problem;
? Ensure that the UAT manager and other UAT team members are highly engaged in solving UAT performer issues (they should feel someone can help them at any time ).
A uat performer team with a fixed test time will be a real advantage (assuming that 50% of the time is used for testing and 50% of the time is used for offline activities ). After a reasonable cycle is established, a UAT expert team can be established to save a lot of training time for further UATS.

　How to combine UAT with existing testing programs in your organization
It is important to combine UAT with other testing programs and related standards that are being used in the Organization (this is especially important when UAT is the only test used in the project.
In particular, you need to make sure that you produce testing objects that are part of UAT, and that the documentation and reports are consistent with what is expected to be produced as part of other testing activities. This also applies to test management tools and defect tracking tools: We recommend that all test results be obtained and managed in the same way as other test management methods.
This will help you gain greater visibility into The UAT test cases for execution and execution of the results plan (which is especially effective if you have a large number of UAT stakeholders. Identifies copies of defects found as part of other test activities (if any) and ensures that all identified defects are properly handled.

　　Do you need to produce test cases as part of UAT? What should they look like?
Note from the very beginning that we strongly recommend writing test cases for UAT (they can be called test cases, test scripts, use cases, user stories, and so on ). Enterprise Users often try to avoid this because they already know what they are going to do and how to do it, because it is similar to their daily work. Capturing all test cases planned in advance for execution is still important.
First, this helps you understand what to verify, what to do for it, and what expected results. Creating UAT test cases is not only necessary to specify the scope of verification before the actual execution starts (sometimes people begin to perform additional checks during a test that might really add value to the tests being executed, but it can also destroy the overall UAT plan or relevant data prepared for other parts of the test), and also make UAT execution in the resource and infrastructure usage plan (including human resources) more effective, adding the robustness of the test set (for example, it helps avoid repeated checks when parallel users create UAT test cases, or help reveal coverage gaps and error assumptions ), and allows you to track UAT progress more accurately in the execution phase. UAT is different in nature from the testing type being executed by developers or test experts-UAT has no goals such as verifying that the tested system works properly. The main objective of this type of testing is to ensure that SUT responds to the customer's expectations and enables the enterprise to achieve its goals. That's why the UAT test script looks like it doesn't have a hard rule-they may be created as formal test cases, user stories, or even a review list. The format and level of UAT details can vary depending on the following factors:
? The time you used to develop and execute test cases.
? Test infrastructure constraints.
? UAT performer experience (including their experience in the enterprise field and software testing principles and technical business ).
? Possible UAT team member loops (you can use the same enterprise user in The UAT process of your project, or sometimes you need to change to a new user ).
Regardless of how the UAT test will be written, the steps in the UAT test and other test types (for example, the prerequisite, the series of steps that will be executed, the expected results or one contestant) the same mandatory test case attributes used must be included. Defining a business role that will implement this test case is very important, because the same business scenario can have different traffic based on the executor (consider the customer experience at the same time-it is useful for someone to assume the customer to ensure that the process is consistent with the end customer's perspective ). You may take these factors into consideration when developing planned test cases, but you should also remember that the prepared test cases are clear and they may be important for enterprise users to run, this depends on the business process to be tested. When you consider the coverage of UAT test cases, in addition to separately verifying the specific bit of the business process, you should also consider adding a terminal-to-Terminal Business Process verification. Finally, if you want to benefit from UAT test cases, you should keep in mind the reasons you decided to develop them. Do not take a formal approach to this, but create them with enthusiasm (this last suggestion applies to any activity or other activities in the UAT process. Remember that UAT execution may sometimes update the original business requirements or even create new ones, because UAT execution is becoming an enterprise user (the requirement initiator in most cases) another reason for rethinking the correctness and level of detail of their original needs, as well as the integrity of their business objectives, is that they have begun to use new solutions, for the first time, I read the new solution in detail. UAT test cases are created to identify problems using business requirements earlier, which may reduce the cost of fixing them.

Who is responsible for UAT management?
One of the key success factors of UAT is choosing the right person to manage the activity. UAT is often considered as one of the test types (executed relative to the solution), so it may seem reasonable to have a test Manager or test lead manage UAT. When managing UAT, this person is likely to have a similar sense of responsibility and must handle similar problems, such as the problems he or she faces when managing system integration testing (SIT. On the other hand, The UAT manager will need to deal with other types of issues (in some cases additional personal skills and/or business logic knowledge about the tested system. For example, one of the important differences between UAT management and sit management is, the UAT operator does not directly report to the UAT Manager (this is another reason that UAT looks like a "group test ). UAT people are still preparing for their production line management, which also requires them to do their main (non-test) work. Therefore, in some cases, The UAT manager must find an appropriate balance between the UAT performer's online activities and UAT-related activities. In this case, the UAT manager should have the opportunity to obtain the upgrade path, because the tester's failure to implement part of its UAT in time may compromise the overall UAT activity. It is worth mentioning that it is important to avoid conflicts of interest in any form, especially when some people assume multiple roles in the project team.

　　Conclusion
UAT is the last stop before solution production. This means that the organization and management method of UAT will (in most cases) define the enterprise user expectations of the developed solution, this means that UAT is particularly important. We hope this article will help you avoid common errors and improve UAT efficiency in your project. One thing to remember is that even if you have created a powerful UAT process, if you find a way to motivate people, you can always get more from your group tests.

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