User Acceptance Testing is the final pre-release phase in the software development lifecycle. Broadly speaking, UAT’s objective is to validate that the software is working as intended. UAT ensures that new features and enhancements in your application support your business needs, and unlike functional testing performed by developers, UAT is typically performed by end users.

For most organizations, UAT is too time-consuming and monotonous to be considered effective. This is because most enterprises rely on manual UAT processes, where end users robotically click through every possible workflow and utilize clunky spreadsheets that inhibit collaboration and provide little or no visibility.

Business users also have their actual jobs to do, and testing usually isn’t high on their priority list. Check out our latest blog that describes the How UAT Testing Leads to Higher ERP User Adoption Rates.

In this blog, we’ll discuss the best user acceptance testing practices that ensure user buy-in. Additionally, we’ll explain how you can run UAT cycles faster, so you can quickly ensure that your software works, to get the most out of your applications.

When should the User Acceptance Testing be executed?
Since UAT is essential for verifying changes right before production, it should be run after unit testing, regression testing, and QA testing. UAT is typically the last step before a release is pushed live.

Factors to consider when performing User Acceptance Testing
UAT Scope
Determining the scope of your user acceptance testing is crucial. If your parameters are too broad, you end up testing too much and wasting business users’ time. If your parameters are too narrow, you won’t test enough, which means your application will still be at risk post-production.

When defining the scope of your project, you must get input from key business users. However, this process is typically wrought with errors. Most business users don’t fully know what they should be testing, because they don’t fully know all of their business processes. As such, the tests they recommend typically are not sufficient to provide adequate coverage. Additionally, this process is typically done through complex Excel spreadsheets and takes hours to complete.

To gain key user adoption and streamline UAT, organizations should employ a user acceptance testing tool that includes Test Discovery functionality. Test Discovery automates the inefficient UAT scoping process by scientifically telling you which actions business users are performing. This negates the need for complicated spreadsheets and extended meetings between business and IT teams and ensures your team has the correct UAT scope. This, in turn, helps increase the speed of your UAT cycles.
UAT Planning
UAT planning refers to assigning different processes to various business users and setting timelines for when they must test those processes. UAT planning requires input from multiple, often globally dispersed stakeholders. However, using spreadsheets or tracking progress on email threads is not scalable. Collecting and analyzing qualitative and quantitative data from multiple stakeholders in a tool like Excel often takes hours.

A dedicated UAT management solution can provide real-time reporting and dashboard capabilities that streamline this planning progress and grant you visibility into everyone’s UAT work.
UAT Execution
With the scope and plan of your UAT process in place, you can now begin testing to decide whether or not to move to production.

Three key challenges with UAT execution are tedious test documentation, complex workflows, and clunky defect management.

Automating Documentation
It is critical that business users document each step in their UAT process, especially when issues arise. But requiring them to document their issues by copying and pasting them into spreadsheets or Word docs isn't efficient. And business users often end up spending more time reporting on their testing results than actually performing the testing.

A UAT testing tool should effortlessly document every test execution, with the minimal manual effort needed from business users. This frees up testers’ time and accelerates their overall progress without compromising the quality of their UAT effort.

Automating Workflows
For business users, UAT workflows with multiple dependencies prove to be challenging due to their complicated nature. Users often end up spending too much time figuring out what needs to be tested rather than actually testing the workflows.

A UAT testing tool should effortlessly document every test execution, with the minimal manual effort needed from business users. This frees up testers’ time and accelerates their overall progress without compromising the quality of their UAT effort.

Defect Management
Defect tracking and management is arguably the most critical aspect of UAT, as developers use this data to address issues so that applications can be pushed to production from the testing environment. But because UAT testing is typically a monotonous process with complicated collaboration channels, this can prove difficult.

A user acceptance testing tool should automatically identify application bugs & issues, and determine the effect that one bug has on the rest of the application. Additionally, it should automatically communicate the defect with a corresponding screenshot to the appropriate technical teams.

Best practices for user acceptance testing
Identify end users: UAT should be performed by business users since they’re the ones who will be using ERP to perform their day-to-day tasks.
Develop a test plan: A good test plan consists of a list of which tests to run, requirements for sign-off, and a change control process.
Develop detailed user stories and acceptance criteria: Efficient test scripts are critical for successful UAT. If you’re depending on business users to write test scripts, you should opt for a no-code test automation platform, since these people aren’t technically trained and cannot write in code.
Create communication standards: Business users should use screenshots or recordings to share details on bugs they find during UAT. Test automation solutions like Opkey enable these users to do just that, with minimal manual effort.
The best practices for user acceptance testing have been thoroughly covered in our blog post, User Acceptance Testing: 4 Best Practices to Follow.

According to McKinsey, more than 70% of all digital transformation projects fail. One of the biggest reasons for ERP failure is poor adoption by end-users. To avoid this type of failure, enterprises need a robust and efficient User Acceptance Testing (UAT) process.

Check out our latest blog on User Acceptance Testing: The Key to ERP Implementation Success‍
With Opkey, accelerate your packaged application User Acceptance Testing (UAT) and achieve optimal Test Coverage without compromising on scope or quality.‍

Opkey’s end-to-end test automation solution simplifies and automates your User Acceptance Testing with features like

No-Code Test Automation
Opkey's no-code testing platform empowers any employee–no matter their technical expertise–to create automated tests. This frees technical teams from having to be involved with each phase of the user acceptance testing cycle.

Test Discovery
Opkey's Test Discovery technology can mine business process logs to determine which of your processes actually need to be tested. This helps you focus your UAT on processes that actually need attention, and helps provide optimal test coverage.

Reporting and Analysis
Opkey automatically generates easy-to-understand reports along with debugging logs and screenshots. These easy-to-understand testing results can be easily shared.

A successful UAT program will lead to early bug detection and better adoption so you achieve your business objectives.

Read our blog: A Guide to Salesforce User Acceptance Testing ‍
Sign up for the free trial for Opkey’s Test Automation Platform now, and keep your people focused on what really matters.

Frequently Asked Questions‍
What is user acceptance testing?‍

User acceptance testing is defined as the phase of software development in which the software is tested in the "real world" by the intended audience or business representatives. This type of testing is also known as application testing, beta testing, or end-user testing.

What are the benefits of user acceptance testing?

User acceptance testing validates whether business requirements are met by software.
User acceptance testing helps identify defects that are left after unit testing or integration testing.
UAT mitigates the risk of finding defects post-production.
UAT helps to gain buy-in from the software’s end users.
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What are the prerequisites before performing User Acceptance Testing?‍

• Before performing User Acceptance Testing, you must validate if the application code has been fully developed by your testing teams.

• You must verify if regression testing has been done and that no major defects/bugs have been identified.

• You should validate that all reported defects have been fixed and re-tested.

• You should have executed thorough test planning before you start user acceptance testing.