5 Key Best Practices for User Acceptance Testing

TrackVia offers a platform that can enable you to create a multitude of applications, but there are many elements that go along with creating a successful application that will meet your users’ expectations. At TrackVia, we offer a comprehensive service where we design, develop, test, and deploy a low-code application, built specifically for you. However, if you’re working on your own application, we also share proven best practices that will make your project a success.

Previously we covered the design phase, where requirements are laid out and User stories are written. In the comprehensive service package we would follow the design phase with the development phase where TrackVia and you (the customer) would go through a number of iterative feedback loops of Building → Reviewing (Feedback) → Revising → Back to Building. The next phase we enter is the testing phase, also known as User Acceptance Testing (UAT), which is what we’ll talk about in this article.

What is UAT?
User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is the last step before the application is deployed, and it plays a key role because it validates whether the business requirements are fulfilled and working as expected. The User Stories that were written during the design phase, will be used as success criteria for the testing phase.

TrackVia’s Unique Approach to UAT
At TrackVia, we follow an Agile approach which welcomes and encourages the constant changes that naturally occur in the development of an application. This allows for the delivery of software to be swift and frequent via the iterations previously described.

The greatest value developing in this manner is the iterative process, where we cycle through a number of feedback loops during the development phase, before the formal UAT cycle even begins. In other words, because of how flexible the platform is, and how easy it is to make changes, we begin testing and revising the moment we start building!

Once we have completed the build and iterated through a few of these loops, we are setting ourselves up for success, and we will be at a great starting point for the official UAT cycle to begin. We will now discuss what we consider to be the Best Practices when going through the testing phase (UAT).

UAT Best Practices

1. User designation. Designate the users that will be testing the application. This includes a combination of key stakeholders (which should include those who have been involved since the design phase) as well as the users that will be using the application. We want their feedback since this application was built specifically for them.
2. Test scripts. These are test plans where we outline and describe the scenarios that need to be tested, in order to make sure the app meets the requirements that were created in the design phase (as User Stories). We use the User Stories to create well-rounded test scripts for the test team to go through, without forgetting to test the edge case scenarios that are not super common. The User Stories will be the foundation of the test scripts, and they will also be our success criteria while testing.
3. Structure, structure, structure. The more you plan the details around your testing, the more you’ll be ready for the deployment phase. Who will be testing? Have we put them in groups yet? When will this happen? How long will it be? Do we have the test scripts ready? These logistics will ensure that we get the most out of the testing phase.
4. Tracking the Feedback. Within your TrackVia account you’ll have a fully functioning “Tracking” app where we’ll store all of the User Stories, as well as all of the Feedback items. This means that everything that your test team finds that needs to be fixed, will be entered into this application, so that your Implementation Engineer can evaluate the feedback.
5. Prioritize the feedback. After the feedback has been collected, figure out what must be fixed before going live. Everything that comes out of UAT does not need to be fixed immediately, so prioritize the feedback, and work together with the Implementation Engineer to figure out what must be fixed asap.

These proven best practices will help you deploy an application that your users will love. If you’d like a helping hand with any stage of a TrackVia application delivery please drop us a note at Services@trackvia.com.