Assuming Acceptance Testing
In the software development life cycle, acceptance testing is an important stage. Tests are conducted to prove a piece of software meets all the requirements of the stakeholder and customers. Acceptance testing is done by validating the performance of software before it’s given out. Often, the actual testers are an outsider to the development project, to provide an independent opinion.
Acceptance testing validates the results of the software with respect to the business needs. It’s goal is to ensure the software achieves the goals of the project requirements. In layman’s terms, it means the software being tested should do what it’s meant to do and should act in the way it was promised to act.
Acceptance testing involves executing real-life scenarios on the software to make sure it is performing as per expectations. It ranges from validation of the user’s interface of the product to smoke testing, functional testing, integration testing and finally evaluation of overall performance.
With traditional methods, acceptance testing was done through manually facing each individual scenario and often led to mountains of paperwork existing to record and analyze results. With the advent of automated testing tools, testing became more accurate, faster, and easier to repeat. Most organizations are now lean with their acceptance testing practice and are heavily reliant on these tools.
Automated acceptance testing is one of the most popular methods of acceptance testing used because it allows faster execution, a higher accuracy rate and can be used on different platforms and devices. Automated acceptance testing allows a tester to create and run automated tests that can be repeated any number of times without requiring the manual presence of the tester.
Some benefits of automated acceptance testing include:
• Faster Execution – Automated tests take a fraction of time as compared to manual tests, which saves you time and money.
• Higher Accuracy – Automated testing is more accurate since it follows the same repeatable test process and will only stop when there’s an issue with the software.
• Less Investment – Automated tests cost far less when compared to manual tests because of their lower labor costs and higher testing levels.
• Enhanced Coverage – Automated tests can cover various endpoints, platforms and can be configured per need or requirement.
• Easy Repetition – Automated tests can be easily repeated with fewer variations and is easy to set up. This also allows for better optimization and effectiveness.
• Quicker Analysis – Analysing the results of automated tests takes less time as compared to manual tests. This allows testers to quickly identify and analyze the results and improve the effectiveness of the tests.
Automated acceptance testing can provide an unbiased and independent opinion of the software without having to manually check and test each individual scenario, thus increasing the overall effectiveness of the tests. It can also improve the test automation suite, making it more flexible and efficient.
However, automated acceptance testing is not without its drawbacks. Tests need to be created and set up correctly to ensure accuracy and reliability. Automated tests also become outdated when there are updates in the software, so it’s important to regularly update the tests to account for these changes.
Though automated acceptance testing allows organizations to leverage their resources, it should not be seen as a replacement for manual testing. Manual testing will always be needed to ensure that all requirements are fulfilled. Automated acceptance testing is only meant to provide a quicker, more efficient and more effective way to validate the results of the software.