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A study of user acceptance tests

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Abstract

The user acceptance test (UAT) is the final stage of testing in application software development. When testing results meet the acceptance criteria, the software system can be released for operational use.This paper first compares the different testing phases of software development (i.e. unit test, integration test, system test and UAT) in terms of important testing elements so as to highlight the uniqueness of UAT relative to the other test phases. Then, we describe several approaches for acceptance test, including the behaviour-based approach, the black-box strategy and a new UAT strategy called operation-based testing. The new strategy uses the operational profile for testing purposes, includes a well-defined acceptance criteria, and satisfies the test requirements of ISO9001 standards.

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Leung, H.K., Wong, P.W. A study of user acceptance tests. Software Quality Journal 6, 137–149 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1018503800709

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