Reason for UAT
The Goal of the User Acceptance Test (UAT) is to make sure that the output of an application is what is expected from the ‘business needs and requirements’. The application is producing the expected results.
Types of development methodology compared in this article: Waterfall methodology and Agile methodology.
Testing defined as per the Certifying Software Testers Worldwide www.istqb.org,
“Formal testing with respect to user needs, requirements, and business processes conducted to determine whether or not a system satisfies the acceptance criteria and to enable the user, customers or other authorized entity to determine whether or not to accept the system”
This can be done in a Scrum environment. The deliverables are in an increment of working software delivered every month or sometimes less than a month.
Scrum defines ‘Definition of Done’ as below:
The Definition of Done ensures everyone on the Team knows exactly what is expected of everything the Team delivers. It ensures transparency and quality fit for the purpose of the product and organization.
Use the link to access the article: https://www.scruminc.com/definition-of-done/
The definition of the user story in Scrum / Agile environment:
A Product Backlog is composed of User Stories.
User Stories describe the following:
1. The user,
2. The feature user wants to use and
3. The reason user would like to have it.
It’s defined like this:
As a (user)
I want (a feature),
So I can (reason of need/business benefit)
‘As a’ will describe ‘the role that has to perform’
‘I want’ will describe ‘what needs to be done’
‘So I can’ will indicate ‘what is the business benefit’.
Definition of Done
The ‘acceptance criteria’ need to be mentioned clearly and accepted by both the Product Owner and the Development Team. The Scrum team will have a clear, transparent and mutual understanding of the ‘acceptance criteria’. This will eliminate any confusion in the sprint completion.
The sprint increment will be defined as ‘done’ when all the UAT in the sprint is completed as per the ‘acceptance criteria’.
The Product Owner is finally responsible to accept the
deliverables in the sprint and approving the User Acceptance Tests. The Product Owner will be closely working
with the Development Team and deliver feedback about the product.
Feedback from stakeholders is collected and processed during the Sprint Review meeting.
UAT will be part of the sprint before it’s done.
UAT – Difference between Agile/Scrum and Waterfall projects.
| Agile | Waterfall | |
| 1 | Rigorous and tested in every sprint | UAT is done after product development |
| 2 | Testing done at every sprint | Usually last step |
| 3 | Defects identified earlier stages | Defects identified at the last stage |
| 4 | UAT done at multiple places: Sprint, Sprint review, Demo | Only one place at the last stage |
| 5 | Provides opportunity for active learning and correcting errors at early stages | UAT is the last stage and little time to learn and fix errors |
| 6 | UAT begins when user story is written | UAT is the last stage |
| 7 | Business, development and testing group is involved in every sprint | UAT includes only testers and other members join later for review |
| 8 | Acceptance criteria mentioned in the user story, which is at an earlier stage | Acceptance Criteria is mentioned in UAT which is at a later stage |
| 9 | UAT tasks are added in user story. Multiple UATs for one product | Only one UAT for a product at a later stage |
Conclusion: Agile and Waterfall perform UAT to complete the acceptance criteria. It’s performed multiple times in Agile to make changes then and there before waiting for a long time like Waterfall.
