[QA.FT.3] Confirm end-user experience and functional correctness with acceptance tests
Category: FOUNDATIONAL
Acceptance tests evaluate the observable functional behavior of the system from the perspective of the end user in a production-like environment. These tests encompass functional correctness of user interfaces, general application behavior, and ensuring that user interface elements lead to expected user experiences.
By considering all facets of user interactions and expectations, acceptance testing provides a comprehensive evaluation of an application's readiness for production deployment. There are various forms of functional acceptance tests which should be used throughout development lifecycle:
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End-To-End (E2E) Testing: Acceptance tests performed by the development team through delivery pipelines to validate integrated components and user flows. Begin by identifying the most impactful user flows and create test cases for them. Ideally, teams practice Behavior-Driven Development (BDD)
to define how the system will be designed to be tested before code is written. Next, adopt a suitable automated testing framework, such as AWS Device Farm or Selenium . Using the continuous delivery pipeline, trigger the testing tool to run scripted tests cases against the system while it is running in the test environment. -
User Acceptance Testing (UAT): Acceptance tests performed by external end-users of the system to validate that the system aligns with business needs and requirements. The users measure the application against defined acceptance criteria by interacting with the system and providing feedback based on if the system behaves as expected. The development team engages, instructs, and supports these users as they test the system. Log the results of the test by gathering feedback from the users, using the acceptance criteria as a guide. Feedback should highlight areas where the system met or exceeded expectations as well as areas where the system did not meet expectations.
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Synthetic Testing: Continuously run simulations of user behavior in a live testing environment to proactively spot issues. Define the metrics you want to test, such as response times or error rates. Choose a preferred tool that integrates well with your desired programming tools and frameworks. Write automated test scripts which simulate user interactions against the user interface and APIs of the system. These scripts should be regularly run by the synthetic testing tool in the testing environment. Synthetic tests can also be used to perform continuous application performance monitoring in production environments for observability purposes.
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