1. Making UAT More Effective
Jim Trentadue
Software Quality Consulting Director
Original Software

2. Agenda 1
UAT in IT 2
Defining UAT within the overall test effort 3
Supporting UAT from an IT perspective 4
Enabling UAT Planning
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Enabling UAT Execution 6
Session Recap

3. UAT in IT

4. Identify UAT Scenarios Verify UAT defect fixes
UAT in the IT Industry
Role in the various SDLC methodologies
Waterfall
Agile
Plan UAT
Define Scope of UAT
Identify UAT Scenarios
Review Business Reqs, Use Cases and UI Design
Document UAT Test Scenarios
Execute UAT Tests
Execute & Document Results
Log UAT Defects
Verify UAT defect fixes
Rerun impacted UAT Scenarios
Report UAT results
Go / No Go Call
UAT Signoff
Test Cases?

5. Automation for everyone – even UAT
Shift-Left to Reduce Errors, Shift-Right for Better Quality
Shift Right!
Skillset Spectrum
More Technical, More Specialists
No Coding Skills Required
Project Team Goal:
Do Testing Better!
Pro’s
Con’s
Cheaper or free software
Significant investment to implement
Better-known in market place
Requires specialized resources
Pro’s
Con’s
Increased utilization of automation
Higher entry point cost to buy or build
Automation done earlier by everyone
Potentially longer to implement
Dev, DBA, QA Specialist
BA, Functional QA, UAT

6. Defining UAT

7. Defining UAT – Testing Assessment
First, understand the risk and strike a proper balance
Risk Assessment
Independent QA team executes system tests?
Is UAT the only active testing group?
Ensuring we have different roles!
Is there an SQA team?
Yes No
Production work on hold
Coming in too late
Adequate testing time
Avoid overlap
Joint review of artifacts

8. Defining UAT - Dividing Responsibilities
Understanding Breadth vs. Depth testing approaches
LOGIN
MENU
ORDER
INVENTORY
PROCESSING
CONFIRMATION
REPORTS
LOGIN
Login as Manager (Full access)
Login as Supervisor (Administrative access)
Login as User (Limited access)
MENU
Access order A (Requires full or admin access)
Access order A (Should be able to access)
Access order A (Negative test – should not be able to access)
ORDER
Process order A
Process order B (Does not require full or admin access)

9. Supporting UAT

10. Responsible parties for UAT
Who is responsible for a successful UAT initiative
Successful UAT with minimal disruption to the business
Business knowledge
and Training Guides
EVERYTHING!
Coordination
and Training
$$$
Business
Schedules
Usability
Environments
Business Impact
Project Managers
Business Analysts
Developers
Testing Department
IT Operations
UAT Lead
Business Users
External Customers

11. Testing Department support for UAT
EVERYTHING!
Planning
Test Strategy – UAT part
Acceptance Test assist
Test Data approach
Training outline
Execution
Scenario sharing
Environment preparation
Test Data setup
Defect retest
Report
Review
Requirements
Stories
Design
Prototype / Demo
Test Plans / Cases
Test Summary
Retrospectives
Defects
Strategy
Backlog
Status
Test Results
Defects
Product Readiness

12. Key questions & concerns
Is this just an IT problem?
Enough business interest to allot time?
Who is accountable for success?
How can UAT improve?
Technical Enablement
Competing Priorities
Revenue killer vs.
Revenue maker IT
Business
People
Processes

13. Enabling UAT Planning

14. Enabling UAT Planning: Estimation
How should UAT be estimated for planning & execution?
Current Situation
Fraction of time taken from QA estimate
Plan lacking for other business deadlines
Improvement
Systematically from UAT regression test runs
Estimation

15. Enabling UAT Planning: Test Assets
How much document assistance does SQA provide?
Current Situation
Re-create UAT scripts or take existing SQA tests
Commitment from UAT staff on completing testing tasks
Improvement
Maintain test repository of UAT-created artifacts
Test Assets

16. Enabling UAT Planning: Test Mgmt. access
Who coordinates what UAT needs / does in TM solution?
Current Situation
Unclear what access UAT needs into TM repository
System tests / scenarios are given to UAT to modify
Improvement
UAT specific view & access for relevant information
Test Management

17. Enabling UAT Planning: Test Automation use
Who creates / runs the automation and for what purpose?
Current Situation
Test engineer created tests based from system tests
Automation is executed by system tester; validation only
Improvement
Biz process steps capture done by UAT, used by UAT
Test Automation

18. Enabling UAT Planning: Training artifacts
Does UAT have to re-execute to produce training materials?
Current Situation
UAT focuses on executing test, not for training doc
No schedule allocation for training docs production
Improvement
Enable UAT with markup feature during test execution
Training

19. Enabling UAT Execution

20. Enabling UAT Execution: Accountability
Who has it from IT and Business?
Current Situation
IT plans 50%+ resource time for UAT Coordination
Biz dedicates colleague for strictly UAT Coordination
Improvement
Direct input:
What is done
Who did it
When did they
Where was it
Accountability

21. Enabling UAT Execution: Testing Status report
Who did it? What did they do? Where did they test?
Current Situation
Frequent checkpoint and status updates
Lack of time, priority shift; defect ties back to SQA
Improvement
Clear visibility to UAT results
Testing Status

22. Enabling UAT Execution: Continuous Testing
How can we turn this into automatic maintainability?
Current Situation
Constantly re-engineer test cases for accuracy
File location holds test that are outdated; maintenance!
Improvement
Continuous updates to UAT artifacts; Shift Right!
Productivity

23. Session Recap

24. Presentation Recap Key takeaways for UAT effectiveness
Understand where UAT falls within the SDLC and where they are positioned for Test Automation
Define where UAT is within the Testing organization and how responsibilities are divided
Outline who are the main parties supporting UAT, especially those roles within the Testing department
Review the means which UAT Planning can be more efficient, through solutions or framework build in Test Mgmt. system
Review the means which UAT Execution can be more effective, through dynamic result reporting and test case maintenance

25. Thank you for attending this presentation!
Jim Trentadue
Software Quality Consulting Director
Original Software