Software Testing Tutorial #15 - What is Acceptance Testing

Summary

This tutorial explains acceptance testing, focusing on its role in verifying if a software product meets customer needs. It distinguishes between different types of acceptance testing, such as alpha and beta testing, highlighting their purposes. Alpha testing is performed internally by developers, while beta testing involves end users providing feedback. The video also covers the importance of verifying contractual and regulatory obligations during acceptance testing to ensure the software is fit for use. Acceptance testing helps address gaps between customer needs and documented requirements, especially in traditional development approaches like waterfall and V-models.

Takeaways

• 🛠️ Acceptance testing verifies if the software meets the customer's requirements and is fit for use.
• 📋 Acceptance testing checks if the built software fulfills the exact needs of the customer documented in requirements or user stories.
• 🔄 There are different types of acceptance testing, including alpha testing and beta testing.
• 🏢 Alpha testing is conducted internally within the development team, often with business stakeholders involved.
• 🌍 Beta testing happens at the customer’s or end user's premises, where a select group of users test the software before full release.
• 📜 Acceptance testing also ensures that any contractual obligations and regulatory standards are met.
• 🔧 In Agile methodology, continuous feedback loops help address gaps in requirements, unlike the traditional waterfall approach where acceptance testing is the main verification phase.
• 🚧 Acceptance testing bridges the gap between what the customer needs and what is documented and built, ensuring alignment.
• ✅ Alpha testing aims to validate the software internally, while beta testing collects feedback from real users.
• 📝 In waterfall or V-model approaches, acceptance testing is the final phase to ensure the software meets the customer’s needs before release.

Q & A

What is acceptance testing?

Acceptance testing is a type of testing used to determine whether a software application meets the needs and requirements of the customer and is fit for use. It ensures that the developed software satisfies the customer's expectations.

How does acceptance testing differ from system testing?

System testing verifies that the software functions according to the requirements, while acceptance testing ensures that the software fulfills the customer's actual needs and is suitable for use. Acceptance testing is focused on validating the software against the customer’s expectations.

What are the key types of acceptance testing?

The key types of acceptance testing include alpha testing, which is performed internally at the development site, and beta testing, which is conducted by end-users in a real-world environment. Other types may include contractual and regulatory acceptance testing.

What is alpha testing?

Alpha testing is a form of acceptance testing conducted at the development premises. Business stakeholders and other relevant team members test the application to verify that it meets the acceptance criteria before it is released for beta testing.

What is beta testing?

Beta testing is conducted at the customer's site or by a group of end-users. The application is released to a limited number of users who provide feedback, helping to identify any remaining issues before the software is fully deployed.

When is acceptance testing typically performed?

Acceptance testing is performed after system testing and is the final phase before the software is released to the customer or end-users. It ensures the software is ready for deployment.

What role does acceptance testing play in Agile and Waterfall methodologies?

In Agile, acceptance testing is part of the continuous feedback loops, making it easier to catch and rectify any gaps early on. In the Waterfall model, acceptance testing is typically the final phase before deployment, so any gaps must be caught at this stage.

What are contractual and regulatory obligations in acceptance testing?

Contractual acceptance testing ensures that the software meets the contractual requirements agreed upon with the customer. Regulatory acceptance testing verifies that the software complies with the regulations and standards required in specific regions, such as GDPR compliance in Europe.

How does acceptance testing handle gaps between customer needs and documented requirements?

Acceptance testing helps to ensure that any gaps between what the customer needs and what has been documented in the requirements are identified and addressed. In Agile, continuous feedback loops help reduce these gaps, while in Waterfall, acceptance testing is the primary way to ensure alignment.

What is the importance of acceptance testing in the software development life cycle?

Acceptance testing is crucial because it verifies that the developed software meets the customer's needs and is ready for use. It acts as the final check to ensure the software is both functional and aligned with the customer’s expectations before it is deployed.

Outlines

00:00

📋 Introduction to Acceptance Testing

The video begins by introducing the topic of acceptance testing within the broader context of software testing. It explains that after covering unit, integration, and system testing, acceptance testing is the next key level to understand. Acceptance testing is crucial because it ensures that customer requirements, initially provided and documented, are fully met. The speaker uses the example of a customer providing needs for an e-commerce website to demonstrate how requirements are communicated and documented. Acceptance testing ensures that these requirements have been translated correctly into the software.

05:02

🔍 Ensuring Customer Needs Through Acceptance Testing

The second part continues to explain the importance of acceptance testing by ensuring the software meets the customer's initial needs. While system testing verifies that the system functions correctly, acceptance testing goes further to validate that it satisfies the customer’s actual requirements. The software must be fit for use, meaning it fulfills the customer's needs. This type of testing takes place after system testing and focuses on confirming whether the application matches what the customer asked for.

🧪 Understanding Alpha and Beta Testing

The speaker introduces two types of acceptance testing: alpha and beta testing. Alpha testing occurs internally within the development environment, where business stakeholders review the application to ensure it meets acceptance criteria. Beta testing happens in the customer's or end user's environment, where a select group of users tests the software to provide feedback. This segment compares both forms of testing and illustrates how companies like Google and Facebook use beta testing by rolling out new features to a subset of users for evaluation.

📑 Contractual and Regulatory Obligations in Acceptance Testing

This section discusses the role of contractual and regulatory obligations in acceptance testing. The software must meet any legal and contractual standards required for release. For example, launching software in Europe requires adherence to specific regulatory requirements. The acceptance testing phase verifies that these obligations are fulfilled. While some of this verification might occur during system testing, most of it is handled in acceptance testing, focusing on the contractual and regulatory aspects.

⚙️ The Role of Feedback Loops in Agile and Waterfall Models

The speaker concludes by comparing acceptance testing in different development methodologies, such as Agile and Waterfall. In Agile, continuous feedback loops help ensure that customer needs are met throughout the development process, reducing gaps between requirements and the final product. In contrast, the Waterfall or V-model relies heavily on the acceptance testing phase as the only opportunity to confirm that the software meets the customer’s needs. This phase is critical in the Waterfall model since there are no regular feedback opportunities.

🎬 Conclusion and Call to Action

The video wraps up by summarizing the importance of acceptance testing in ensuring software fulfills the customer’s needs. It emphasizes that acceptance testing is a vital step, particularly in the Waterfall model, where it's often the only chance to verify that the software meets customer expectations. The speaker concludes by encouraging viewers to like, share, and subscribe to the channel for more helpful software testing tutorials.

Keywords

💡Acceptance Testing

Acceptance testing is the process of verifying whether a software application meets the customer's needs and is fit for use. It ensures that the developed system satisfies the documented requirements, and it is a critical final phase in the software development lifecycle. In the video, it’s described as the stage where the software's fitness for customer use is validated, often following system testing.

💡System Testing

System testing involves verifying that the entire system functions according to specified requirements. In the video, it is mentioned as a phase where requirements are checked to ensure the system is working properly before acceptance testing begins. This testing validates the system's complete and integrated functionality.

💡Customer Requirements

Customer requirements refer to the needs or expectations that the customer provides, which guide the software development process. The video highlights how acceptance testing checks whether these needs, as documented in requirements or user stories, are fully met. These requirements could be functional or non-functional depending on the project.

💡Alpha Testing

Alpha testing is a form of acceptance testing conducted internally by the development team, often with involvement from business stakeholders. The video explains that this type of testing takes place at the development premises to ensure the software meets acceptance criteria before it is released to end users for further testing.

💡Beta Testing

Beta testing is a form of acceptance testing where the software is released to a limited group of end-users outside the development team. In the video, it is explained that companies like Facebook or Google release new features to select users for feedback. This phase helps uncover issues in a real-world usage scenario that were not found in alpha testing.

💡Waterfall Approach

The Waterfall approach is a traditional, linear software development model where each phase must be completed before the next begins. The video contrasts it with Agile, noting that in the Waterfall model, acceptance testing is the only phase where the software's alignment with customer needs is confirmed, making it critical for success.

💡Agile/Scrum

Agile, often implemented through frameworks like Scrum, is an iterative approach to software development. In Agile, feedback loops are continuous, allowing customer needs to be refined over time. The video mentions Agile as a way to minimize gaps between customer expectations and software development through regular feedback and adjustments.

💡Contractual Obligation

Contractual obligations refer to the specific terms and conditions agreed upon in a contract between the software development team and the customer. In the video, it is explained that acceptance testing includes verifying that these contractual obligations have been met, ensuring that the software complies with any agreed-upon standards or features.

💡Regulatory Obligation

Regulatory obligations are rules or standards that software must meet to comply with laws or regulations, especially in industries like finance or healthcare. In the video, regulatory obligations are highlighted as part of acceptance testing, where the software is checked for compliance with legal and regulatory standards, such as European regulations.

💡User Stories

User stories are short, simple descriptions of a feature or function, typically used in Agile development. They are written from the perspective of the user and detail what the user needs from the software. The video notes that in Agile, user stories help translate customer requirements into actionable items for development, which are then validated in acceptance testing.

Highlights

Introduction to software testing and explanation of the test levels: unit testing, integration testing, and system testing.

Introduction of acceptance testing as the next level to understand after system testing.

Explanation of how customer needs are translated into requirements for software development.

Distinction between documenting customer needs through traditional methods (waterfall) versus user stories in Agile Scrum.

The role of user acceptance testing (UAT) in verifying that the software fulfills customer requirements.

Clarification that acceptance testing ensures the software is fit for use and meets customer needs.

Introduction to alpha and beta testing as forms of acceptance testing.

Explanation of alpha testing: conducted at the development premises with business stakeholders.

Explanation of beta testing: conducted at the customer’s site or with end users to gather feedback.

Example of beta testing for large applications like Gmail and Facebook, where features are rolled out to selected users.

Distinction between alpha and beta testing: alpha happens internally, beta happens externally with real users.

Explanation of contractual and regulatory obligation verification during acceptance testing.

Mention of the importance of verifying regulatory standards, especially for launching software in specific regions like Europe.

Insight into how Agile allows continuous feedback loops to mitigate gaps between customer needs and software requirements.

Comparison of Agile and Waterfall methodologies in relation to acceptance testing, emphasizing the iterative feedback in Agile.

Transcripts

hello everyone welcome again in the

software testing tutorial

we are going to learn what is acceptance

testing

so we have already covered the test

levels

and three uh test levels that we have

understood so

unit testing integration testing and

system testing now we also need to

understand

what is acceptance testing now to

understand acceptance testing i'll take

an example here how the customer

provides the requirement right so there

are some needs or customer

requirements that uh are being explained

to the

team who is developing the software and

that's how the requirements come in

picture right

so say for example uh there is a

customer

okay and he has certain

requirements or needs right so what he

exit actually needs

so he will explain that or he will you

know document that and he'll send

those details or he'll try to explain

that these are my needs

in say for example e-commerce website

and based on that

needs somebody will document those into

requirements

right so if it is you know waterfall

approach there will be big requirement

documentations

otherwise if it is a dialogue from agile

scrum

then it will be user stories now

how will the customers needs be verified

so for example

whatever he needed has been documented

in requirements

but how does it mean that

whatever he has wished for or needs has

been

clearly articulated into the requirement

document

or the user stories right so

when that is the case basically so in

order to

make sure that whatever requirements

have been built

throughout that software development

life cycle and in the system testing we

have anyways verified

the requirement that based on the

requirement the system is functioning

fine right so that's what we have

verified in system testing

okay so in system testing that has been

verified

already now in order to verify

the exact needs or what the customer has

you know initially or what exactly he

needs

user acceptance testing or acceptance

testing comes in place

right this is where your acceptance

testing

comes in place okay

so what acceptance testing is all about

is basically

whether the software or the application

that you have

built whether that software fulfills

the customer's requirement and it's fit

for use

or whatever customer needs whether

that software application fulfills that

or not

is acceptance testing okay now there are

many forms of acceptance testing

so you would have heard about the alpha

test alpha testing beta testing right

so alpha testing is

one of the acceptance testing alpha

testing

beta testing now what is the difference

between alpha testing and beta testing

so in alpha testing the testing is done

at the development premise okay so

wherever the development is happening

within the development team uh alpha

testing is done and most of the you know

like business stakeholders and other

people

are invited to test the application and

verify that

the acceptance criteria has been made as

per

has been met as per the needs of the

customer beta testing happens

at the other or the customers premise

most of the time

or the end user so basically if say for

example we are testing

a gmail application right so gmail

application or these you know facebook

application

these applications you would have seen

some times the new features are being

rolled out to

few users or a section of users so those

that is the beta testing so basically

what facebook does is

all these you know applications or the

softwares

for which we are the users or end user

are

the the people that you know use it

day-to-day

then they roll it out to a set of users

and

those users use it and provide the

feedback

and that is what beta testing is all

about

right alpha testing will be done

internally at the google

you know headquarters or google office

um

with with the help of business teams and

business users once they are happy with

it

they'll roll out to the beta testing

phase and it will be available to us

um to basically use that particular

feature and report any issues if there

are

okay so as you use if the software

presses crashes

you will anyways report it to google

right so that's what beta testing is so

this is these are uh you know phases of

acceptance testing now there are many

other type of acceptance testing

so in acceptance testing you uh you know

verify

um you know if there is any contractual

obligation so contractual

obligation then you verify that or you

make sure that the contractual

obligation is being met

if you know there is any regulatory

obligation regulatory obligation

say for example you know this particular

software

uh needs to meet certain regulatory

standards right

um so for example you're launching the

software or

in europe you need to follow certain

regulations there

so those all details need to be verified

the contractual obligations need to be

verified

in the acceptance testing phase whether

whether they have been met

or they haven't been uh met in the uh

in in the software implementation some

of the testing is done in the system

testing phase

itself but most of it is basically you

know part of the alpha beta or

contractual verification

regulatory verification as part of the

acceptance test

uh phase all right so that is all about

you know acceptance testing and what

acceptance testing is all about

basically understand it from underneath

so basically

verifying whether the software that you

are delivering actually fulfills the

need of the customer or not because

there might be gap when whatever he

needs

has been documented in requirements and

there might be gap there are ways to

basically

uh you know rectify those gaps and agile

is the best way to basically rectify

those gap because there are continuous

feedback loops

um but in the waterfall approach

you know this acceptance testing was the

only

phase or v model there was a one this

was the only phase basically to

ensure the software meet meets the needs

of the customer so that's all for the

acceptance testing and what acceptance

testing is hope this was clear and

helpful

please do share and subscribe and thank

you very much for watching