Acceptance Testing

After systems testing, acceptance testing certifies that the software system satisfies the original requirements. This test should not be performed until the software has successfully completed systems testing. Acceptance testing is a user-run test that uses black-box techniques to test the system against its specifications. The end users are responsible for ensuring that all relevant functionality has been tested.

The acceptance test plan defines the procedures for executing the acceptance tests and should be followed as closely as possible. Acceptance testing continues even when errors are found, unless an error itself prevents continuation. Some projects do not require formal acceptance testing. This is true when the customer or user is satisfied with the other system tests, when timing requirements demand it, or when end users have been involved continuously throughout the development cycle and have been implicitly applying acceptance testing as the system is developed.

Acceptance tests are often a subset of one or more system tests. Two other ways to measure acceptance testing are as follows:

1. Parallel Testing—A business-transaction-level comparison with the existing system to ensure that adequate results are produced by the new system.
2. Benchmarks—A static set of results produced either manually or from an existing system is used as expected results for the new system.