Acceptance tests describe black-box requirements, identified by your project customers, which your system must conform to. Acceptance tests really are first-class requirements artifacts because they describe the criteria by which the customer will determine whether the system meets their needs.
Objective
The objectives of acceptance testing are to:
- Determine whether the application satisfies its acceptance criteria.
- Enable the customer organization to determine whether to accept the application.
- Determine if the application is ready for deployment to the full user community.
- Report any failures to the development teams so that the associated defects can be fixed.
Acceptance Testing
Acceptance testing is the process of evaluating the product with the current needs of its end users. It is usually done by end users or customers after the testing group has successfully completed the testing. It involves operating the software in production mode for a pre-specified period of time. If the software is developed under contract, the contracting customer does the acceptance testing. For example: Proper messages should be provided for the navigation from one part to another for an end-user.
Acceptance testing can be done in two different ways:
- Alpha Testing:
- Alpha testing is usually performed by end users inside the development organization.
- The testing is done in a controlled environment.
- Developers are present.
- The defects found by end users are noted down by the development team and fixed before release.
- Beta Testing:
- Beta testing is usually performed by end users outside the development organization and within the end users’ organization.
- The environment is not under control.
- Developers are not present.
- The defects found by end users are reported to the development organization.
Once the acceptance testing is done and the user/client gives clearance, the next step is to release the software. At the time of release, usually, final candidate testing is done, which is the last-minute testing. It is also called Golden Candidate Testing.