Acceptance Testing

Acceptance Testing

Acceptance is a type of testing carried out at the stage of delivery of the finished product (or finished part of the product) to the customer. The purpose of acceptance testing is to determine the readiness of the product, which is achieved by passing test scenarios and cases that are built on the basis of the specification of requirements for the software being developed.

The result of acceptance testing can be:


1.Sending the project for revision.
2.Acceptance by the customer as a completed task.


This is the final stage of testing the product before its release. At the same time, it is not extremely thorough, comprehensive and complete - mainly only the main functionality is tested.
Acceptance testing is carried out either by the customer himself, or by a group of testers representing the interests of the customer, or by testers of the development company. Depends on the preferences of the customer company.

Alpha Testing

Alpha Testing is a type of acceptance testing; performed to identify all possible issues and bugs before releasing the final product to the end users. Alpha testing is carried out by the testers who are internal employees of the organization. The main goal is to identify the tasks that a typical user might perform and test them.

To put it as simple as possible, this kind of testing is called alpha only because it is done early on, near the end of the development of the software, and before beta testing. The main focus of alpha testing is to simulate real users by using a black box and white box techniques.

Benefits of alpha testing:


1.Provides better insight into software reliability at an early stage.
2.Helps simulate user behavior and the environment in real time.
3.Detects many serious errors.
4.Enables early detection of design and functionality errors.


Disadvantages of alpha testing:


The full functionality cannot be tested as the software is still under development. Sometimes developers and testers are unhappy with the results of alpha testing.

Beta Testing

Beta testing is the intensive use of an almost finished version of a product in order to identify the maximum number of errors in its operation for their subsequent elimination before the final release of the product to the market, to the mass consumer. Beta testing is a really working version of the program with full functionality. And the task of beta tests is to evaluate the capabilities and stability of the program from the point of view of its future users.

Unlike alpha testing, which is carried out by in-house developers or testers, beta testing involves recruiting volunteers from among ordinary future users of the product who have access to the said preliminary version of the product (the so-called beta version).

These volunteers (called beta testers) are often driven by curiosity about a new product - a curiosity for the sake of which they are quite willing to put up with the opportunity to experience the consequences of bugs that have not yet been found (and therefore not corrected). In addition to curiosity, motivation can be due to the desire to influence the development process and ultimately obtain a product that more satisfies their needs, and much more. It is very good if these are people who already have experience working with programs of this type, and even better - with a previous version of the same program. Typically, companies already have a certain circle of people with whom they constantly collaborate.

Beta testing can be:


1.Closed: The program is tested in a small group of users by invitation.
2.Open: This option allows you to test the application with a larger group and get a lot of feedback. Any user will be able to join the open beta and provide personal feedback.


Open beta testing, for example, can be used as part of a product's go-to-market strategy (e.g., giving away beta versions for free to attract widespread consumer attention to the final, expensive version of the product) and to obtain early feedback on the product from a wide range of future users.

It must be said that developers have no shortage of people willing to take part in such work. This kind of cooperation benefits both parties, because it is easier to make corrections during the work process, and not after it has already been completed, and besides, comments and suggestions from users allow us to make the software better and of higher quality.

Benefits of beta testing:


1.Reduces the risk of product failure through customer validation.
2.Beta testing allows a company to test the infrastructure after launch.
3.Improves product quality through customer feedback.
4.It is an economical method of data collection compared to similar methods.
5.Creates goodwill with customers and increases customer satisfaction.


Disadvantages of Beta Testing:


1.Test management is a problem. Compared to other types of testing, which are typically performed in-house in a controlled environment, beta testing is performed in the real world, where the company rarely has control.
2.Finding the right beta users and keeping them engaged can be challenging.

Useful Links:
User acceptance testing /article/eng
Acceptance testing /article/eng
Acceptance testing /article/rus
Writing acceptance tests /video tutorial/eng
Acceptance testing /video tutorial/rus