User Acceptance Testing

If you are responsible for installing a new system in your organisation, you will be asked at some time to accept it. Before you do so you will probably wonder if it will deliver the business benefits the organisation was hoping for, such as:

• Reducing the cost of operations
• Speeding up delivery
• Creating a higher quality product

How will you know this? Many projects fail, and you do not want yours to be one of them. You could just rely on the statements from the system vendors that it will suit your needs. However they do not have the same knowledge as your own people do of how your organisation operates. This is where User Acceptance Testing (UAT) enables you to check if the system is fit for purpose.

UAT Steps

Steps you should take to ensure this will be the case include:

• Checking whether you have a good set of requirements for the system. Without these it will not be possible to determine if what has been delivered is what was asked for.
• Prioritising your requirements to see which are most important.
• Developing business scenarios to check how the system will work with the roles and processes in your organisation.
• Developing the Acceptance Criteria for the system so as to know what you will be testing.
• Evaluating the types of tests already done during the development process, to get some idea of the quality of build of the system.
• Creating a Test Plan for UAT following project plan principles, so as to ensure all steps are followed.
• Training your staff in the skills required for them to successfully create tests and run them.
• Developing the test documentation you will need to record the progress made in testing.
• Managing the overall risk of project and product failure.
• Evaluating the test results to make a judgement about whether to accept the system.

UAT Help Available

This site contains some information, which can assist you in conducting User Acceptance Testing. But to be certain that you and your team understand what it is you have to do and more importantly how to do it then ask me about my two-day hands-on UAT training course aimed at business users. This course has been used by a number of large public organisations and businesses. Give yourself and your team the confidence to understand what has to be done in accepting a new system into your organisation by contacting me, Phil Coley.