Quick Guide on Testing For Project Stakeholders (Non-Engineers)

In this quick guide, we have covered the form of testing conducted by project stakeholders who are not a part of the engineering team.

Project stakeholders, who are not a part of the development & testing team, play a crucial role in the release of high-quality software. Their involvement accelerates the software development process. These project stakeholders such as Business Analysts, Product Owners, Requirements Specialist, investors, client, etc ensure that the developed software is in line with the business requirements.

The development team needs to collaborate with stakeholders for successful product release. Stakeholder’s feedback for the product is based on the requirements specified to the development team. These stakeholders perform user acceptance testing to check and validate that the software meets user requirements.

The stakeholders could be from a non-IT background. The testers in the engineering team perform functional testing. Functional testing involves creating test cases and executing test runs. The testers are involved in both phases of test planning and execution.

Functional testing requires in-depth knowledge of the software testing process.

Project stakeholders to provide feedback on the software under development perform User Acceptance Testing or UAT.

What is User Acceptance Testing?

User acceptance testing or UAT is a set of activities performed to track whether the project delivers a quality output or not. It is the last phase of software testing, which is done from a user’s perspective to check and validate the software in a real-world scenario. UAT also helps to monitor any changes made to the requirements while developing the software.

User acceptance testing helps to ensure higher levels of satisfaction of the end-user.

This form of testing captures issues which other types of testing unit or integration have missed.

The prerequisite for UAT testing are:

Here is a checklist to follow before performing UAT

Check the availability of business requirements.
Start after the development of application code.
Unit Testing, Integration Testing & System Testing should be completed.
No defects should be present in the system integration test phase.
UAT environment must be ready.
Traceability matrix should be completed.
Regression testing should be completed with no significant defects.
The Guidelines for User Acceptance Testing must be formulated.

UAT process includes the following steps:

Define the UAT team.
Set UAT team responsibilities in executing test cases and checking that the outcomes of the test are satisfactory.
Document the test cases for input sources and output sources.
Provide comprehensive and adequate coverage for functionality.
Decide the role of the project team in documenting bugs and problems which are identified during testing.
Accept the results on behalf of the user.
Confirm the integrity of the data.
Verify the performance in business critical functions.
Access the system for final product release and its readiness.
Understand the business requirements

UAT defines a project scenario where you have a project charter ready with use cases and flow diagrams. The project scenario is created based on the requirement specification document.

Creating a plan

The plan includes a strategy which is designed to map the business requirements. It consists of the entry and exit points, test cases and scenarios with the timelines of testing.

Test Scenarios and Test cases

It is important to identify the test cases and test steps based on the test scenarios. All the business use cases should be covered in the test cases.

Preparation of Test Data

For user acceptance testing, the use of current data is required. The tester should know the entire database flow.

Run and record the results

UAT tester executes test cases and reports the bugs. The retesting is done to confirm the earlier reported bugs are fixed.

Meeting Business goals

A sign off mail is sent by the business analyst to notify the team about the product quality and delivery. The sign off document contains test scenarios, test cases, results, and defect logs.

UAT considerations:

The list of key points should be considered before concluding UAT:

There should be no critical defects present
The entire process works satisfactorily
A sign-off meeting to ensure the process
Creation of UAT test plan
Identify Test Scenarios
Create UAT Test Cases
Preparation of Test Data (Production like Data)
Run the Test cases
Record the Results
Confirm business objectives

Most common types of User Acceptance Testing are:

Alpha testing

An internal team of testers perform alpha testing even before software is released to external testers or customers. In this testing, different user groups check the functionality and usability of the software.

The feedback from alpha testers and the reported bugs are fixed in the software, which is still in a development environment.

Beta testing

Beta Testing is different from alpha testing; it is done by end-users who will be using the system. The feedback from beta testers becomes the next phase of improvements of the project as the project is in the final stage of the release. It is also known as field testing.

The right tool for UAT for project stakeholders (non-engineers)

As a project stakeholder who is not a part of the engineering team, you may feel like user acceptance is complicated and time-consuming. You can overcome the challenge of the time crunch and complexity of software testing with the right tool.

ReQtest is a test management tool which is designed to cater to testing professionals irrespective of the role they play in a software development project. Even a non-engineer will be as comfortable performing testing with ReQtest as a software tester with testing expertise.

ReQtest offers Easy Test feature for project stakeholders:

Easy Test

An easy test is a quick way to execute a test in ReQtest. In ReQtest, test cases are planned and executed inside test runs. Easy Test is a feature provided in Test Runs which allows ReQtest users with little or no testing experience to execute test cases easily.

Easy Test offers an intuitive narrow window which you can open alongside with the tool you are testing.

The narrow window has all the test cases included in a test run. You can execute the test cases from the narrow window and proceed to the next test case with the Next button.

Benefits of using easy test are:

The easiest and quickest way to execute test cases
Easy Test doesn’t require prior testing experience
A test manager can assign tests to the tester by sending an email and the tester can report the
Results of the execution through an email.
Provides a communication channel to testers
Add clarity and structure to the testing process
Makes the entire process intuitive
Improves the efficiency of the overall testing process

Summary

Project stakeholders should be aware of the basics of user acceptance testing. The right tool for UAT can help you release high-quality software that provides high level of user satisfaction.