Acceptance testing, a testing technique performed to determine whether or not the software system has met the requirement specifications. The main purpose of this test is to evaluate the system's compliance with the business requirements and verify if it is has met the required criteria for delivery to end users.
There are various forms of acceptance testing:
User acceptance Testing
Business acceptance Testing
Alpha Testing
Beta Testing
The following diagram explains the fitment of acceptance testing in the software development life cycle.
The acceptance test cases are executed against the test data or using an acceptance test script and then the results are compared with the expected ones.
Acceptance criteria are defined on the basis of the following attributes
Functional Correctness and Completeness
Data Integrity
Data Conversion
Usability
Performance
Timeliness
Confidentiality and Availability
Installability and Upgradability
Scalability
Documentation
The acceptance test activities are carried out in phases. Firstly, the basic tests are executed, and if the test results are satisfactory then the execution of more complex scenarios are carried out.
The Acceptance test plan has the following attributes:
Introduction
Acceptance Test Category
operation Environment
Test case ID
Test Title
Test Objective
Test Procedure
Test Schedule
Resources
The acceptance test activities are designed to reach at one of the conclusions:
Accept the system as delivered
Accept the system after the requested modifications have been made
Do not accept the system
The Acceptance test Report has the following attributes:
Report Identifier
Summary of Results
Variations
Recommendations
Summary of To-DO List
Approval Decision