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UAT Coordination

User Acceptance Test (UAT) phase is one of the most important phase in Software development life cycle. This is the time when the users who will directly or indirectly will use or involve with the application will have an opportunity to see and test the working software that they will use in near future. In short, the major stakeholders of the software will have an opportunity experience and suggest changes to the software before it is live.

Expected outcome of the UAT are:

  • Business stakeholders approves that the software developed is "Fit for use"

  • Meets the UAT Exit Criteria defined in the organization

  • Defects or changes suggested by users during UAT are addressed. This again depends on different factors like major stakeholder approval, is it a new requirement, impact of the change, effort required, training required and cost involved etc.

Whenever an application is rolled out in an organization,  number of users who will use the software varies on the collaboration that software will bring into the organization. Most software's are expected to be used across globe.

Few problems that occurs while conducting UAT are below (not limited to):

  • User could not attend the training (Change management) before UAT and hence face problem while testing

  • Few users are asked to participate in UAT by supervisor. They don't know anything about the project or requirements

  • Some user from different geographical areas do not get required support  in time while UAT execution because of time zone that  UAT support team support

  • UAT Test Cases are not clear or user could not understand the context of the test case

  • Some users feel they are testing part of software that they will never use in future

  • In real world, software version used for UAT may not be defect free. There might be known issues.  If these are not communicated to the participants of the UAT, they will spend time in area of software that is not ready (known defect)

UAT Coordination is an important responsibility during UAT, which in turn will define the success of the project. UAT Coordination should be planned and well organized in order ensure that outcome of UAT phase is achieved.

Following  sections briefs the approach that UAT Coordinator should consider to run a smoother  UAT .  Implementation of this depends on the context in the projects as every project has different way of execution.

1.  Planning​

Planning for UAT should include following activities:

 

1.1. Identifying UAT Test scenarios and finalize test scenarios with stakeholders:

Generally, Business stakeholders are expected to provide UAT scenarios. But, in some projects stakeholder may not directly provide UAT scenarios because of various reason. UAT Coordinator need to spend time to identify and get approved scenarios

 

1.2. Prepare UAT Test cases

Once the UAT Test scenarios are approved, UAT test case preparation has to begin. UAT Test cases need to be clear, detailed and contains all instructions that an UAT participant would need to understand, execute and report during test execution.

Below are few points to be considered while preparing UAT test case:

1.2.1. Instructions:  Contains all information needed to execute the test cases like How to read document, details of each sections in the test case, explanation of column in test case (Step no, Description, Expected result), How to update the test results etc). Optionally test case can have section explaining nomenclature used in the test case like UI Area/component and their names.

1.2.2. Test Scenario: Test Scenario that the test case will cover. Optionally, it is good to have a flow diagram of the test scenario

1.2.3. Detailed test steps: Contains actual test case with columns like Step No, Description, Expected Result, Status (Pass/Fail),  Comments.

1.2.4. Test Data: Test data can be incorporated with detailed test steps or can be placed separately. But, it is important to add test data. Specifying test data are important whenever there is some logic or calculation related feature that will use the test data. If user does not use correct data, they may end up reporting incorrect defect. But, user should not be restricted to use only specified test data

1.2.5. Multiple reviews: Review of the UAT test cases need to be thoroughly. They need to executed couple of time internally by someone haven't seen the application earlier.  Also, in real world there may be changes to requirement just before UAT start. So, care need to be taken to incorporate those changes also to the test cases.

1.2.6. Measure the estimated time of executing the test case:  While calculating the estimated time, buffer need to included, assuming that participant may have no knowledge of the software under test.

 

1.3. Get UAT participant list from Business as early as possible

In order to plan effectively, UAT Coordinator would need list of UAT participants as early as possible.  The users list need to be segregated based on location, their role in organization/software. This will allow to later assign appropriate test cases to users and manage the UAT support team based on the participant from location with different time zone.

If the test cases are segregated based on the role of the participants, they will be assigned appropriate test case to tests the features they will be using in future.

It is good idea to check with the Change management team to understand if the UAT participants are already trained on the software. If not, coordinate to provide the UAT participants training well in advance.

 

2.  Organize

Once the test case and participant list are ready then it's time to organize them. It is good to prepare a matrix that have details regarding participants, their role in the application, test case assigned to them , mode of test case execution (Standalone test case / Needs interaction with other participant) and the expected time for each test case.

Sharing this information with participant will allow them to plan their time for UAT execution.

Another good practice is maintain a running document like UAT Guide which contains all required information that an UAT participant would like to participant and execute in the UAT. 

 

Following content can be included in the UAT Guide:

  • UAT Scope

  • UAT Timelines

  • Test Cases (or path to test cases)

  • Test Cases Vs UAT Participants

  • How to execute test cases

  • How to report defects

  • Known Issues

 

UAT Guide can be used during the kick-off meeting to brief the UAT guidelines to the participants. UAT Guide should be a running document, i.e., when a new issues comes up or existing Known issue is fixed, UAT guide should be updated accordingly.

 

All necessary meeting should be called for in advance or place holder for the meetings should be sent as early as possible.

Below are few meeting required during UAT:

  • UAT Kick-off meeting

  • Daily Sync-up with UAT participants (This can be two meeting in a day to cover all locations across global)

  • Block time of the UAT participants for test execution

  • UAT Closure meeting

 

3.  Execution and Support

If UAT Coordinator have planned and organized the UAT activities well, the execution will be smoother.

Execution instructions and defects logging mechanism should be informed to participants in the kick-off meeting. Some project use Test management tool for test execution and defect logging.  In this cases, it will be lesser effort on UAT coordinator to consolidate the execution status and defect logged on daily basis. For projects, that uses MS Excel, UAT coordinator should be well planned and organized to consolidate daily status.

 

Defect logging instructions should be informed clearly to the participant in order for them to share detailed information of defect whenever they encounter one. Following are the details expected from participants:

  • Defect Summary

  • Steps to reproduce

  • Test data (if any specific data is used)

  • Role used (if role specific)

  • Screenshot (if applicable)

 

If defect information is not shared clearly by participant, it will cost in lot of efforts during analysis and defect fix. Also, participant might need to spend more time later to share additional information.

 

UAT Timeless normally contains UAT Execution phase and UAT Retest phase. Participants should be informed defects fixed status and asked to retest the defect during the UAT retest phase.

 

Large scale UAT need UAT support team to help UAT participants during UAT execution.  It is good idea to have a group email id for UAT support team and the information should be shared in UAT guide. Also, support team need to plan to work in shifts in order to provide support to participant across the global.

 

Good approach during support is to have a call and have a screen share (if applicable) instead of IM/chatting. This will save time and also allows in understanding participants other problems.

 

4.  Reporting & Closure

UAT coordinator need to communicate status on regular basis to all stakeholder. The status will include test execution status, defect count and participation status for different regions.

Information that need to be shared will also be based on the context and what stakeholder is expecting to know.

Detailed UAT Exit report need to be prepared to present in UAT Closure meeting. UAT Exit report should minimum consist below details:

  • Test Execution Status (Pass/Fail)

  • Defect Status

  • Participants status (region wise)

  • Meets UAT Exit criteria or not

  • Open UAT defect & work forward (if all UAT defects are not fixed but meets UAT Exit criteria)

  • Decision to exit UAT (Yes/No)

 

UAT coordination activities differs based on context and organization standards. Above approach can best suite of some projects and would not help in some other projects. But, the basics of early planning and well organized working will always help in better outcome.

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