QATestLab 154a, Borschagivska str., Kiev, Ukraine ph.: +38(044)501-55-38 http://qatestlab.com/ contact@qa-testlab.com
Acceptance testing is often conducted as the finish substage of software testing to define whether the product should be released. For successful release you also should clarify: 1. What are the anticipations of product reliability in client settings if the software product is released now? 2. What is the proper level of postrelease product support?
It happens so that acceptance testing may be a part of system testing, normally the last part that answers the product release questions. Nevertheless, we differentiate it from regular system testing by the differences in bug fixing possibilities. For example, in system testing, all main defects will be corrected before product release; at the same time in acceptance testing, the defects will not be corrected because of oncoming product release. The bugs detected in acceptance testing will be operated with during postrelease product support. In practical applications, critical bugs detected in acceptance testing could cause expensive protractions to preplanned and usually preannounced product release. The price of such protractions needs to be weighed against the price of delivering a product with main flaws, in order to arrive at a product release decision. If we are talking about the testing techniques, the ones usable for system testing are all potentially usable for acceptance testing. But with the emphasis on product release decisions and anticipated postrelease product support, usagebased statistical testing techniques are normally favored over traditionalblackbox testing.
(c) QATestLab, 2012
http://qatestlab.com/