Page - 101 - in The Future of Software Quality Assurance

Measure Twice, Cut Once: Acceptance Testing 101 4 Acceptance TestingPart 4:Conclusions 4.1 TheExecution:What toAvoidWhentheAcceptance TestingIs Performed? The execution is to come—it should not be the last step and should be done frequently and also manually when needed. Do not forget to record and evaluate the data, so that you are sure that nothing is missed out. What to avoid when the acceptance testing is performed—you will face numerous pitfalls, the one you shoulddefinitelyavoidare: 1. Insufficientplanning—weare always readyuntilwe arenot. 2. Lackof systemavailabilityandstability. 3. Lack of resourceavailabilityandstability—imaginea massive turnover rate and everybodyleaveswhen theacceptancestarts. 4. Poor communications channels—it is no different than any other aspect of the developmentandthe testingprocess—ifyoulack thepropercommunicationand the right communication channels, then you are definitely going to fail as there will alwaysbemisunderstandingamongthe teammembers. 5. Limited recordkeeping—keepyoureyeson the essentials. A very important aspect that is a real pain is user involvement—this is a highly recommendedfactor to makeyouracceptancesuccessful. 4.2 Involving theEndUsers Involving end users in the acceptance testing phase is great, but it also sets a few quite importantchallenges: 1. Users do the acceptance testing in addition to the their busy schedules and to avoid that you should have them testing not at the last moment, but as early as possible; 2. As it is the last phase, acceptance testing may be turned to be a “formality” and to avoid that, the users should write their own test cases and let the test alone as theyhave lessornodevotion to the team/project/software; 3. Then comes the challenge to motivate the users to do thorough testing even when they have busy schedules. Well, get to know your users and use different motivational techniques. 4. Theworstchallengeyoumayfaceis the lackofunderstandingofhowthesystem works—here, the frequentlymentionedtest casescreatedbyuserswillhelpyou. And then, having in mind all the troubles that can be met with the involvement of the end user, you decide to follow the scenario where you entirely rely on the QAs in your company who have worked on the project. The fact is that the QAs