How to reduce User Acceptance Testing bugs? A QAs worst nightmare!

There is always a world of difference between the test environment conditions and real environmental conditions. For example, we cannot trust the efficiency of a robot, car or any other equipment that is tested only in laboratories (test environments). And when these are brought to the real world or tested under real-world scenarios, there are 90-95% chances of failure.

The efforts of repairing this damage or loss are very high as compared to the efforts required to repair if the same issue were found in the earlier testing stage. 

You can come across a similar case in software development, even after testing the software in all possible ways there are chances that some bugs escape to User Acceptance Testing (UAT).

I tried to list down a few cases that might introduce bugs in User Acceptance Testing and how to tackle them:

Case 1: Acceptance criteria not understood

• Acceptance criteria should be understood from the customer's perspective. For this QAs should be part of the Sprint 0 activities.

Case 2: Testing "n" number of times is not sufficient

• For overcoming this, the project management team should be proactive and make an effective plan. QA timelines should be considered.  

Case 3: Negative test cases suite is missing

• Test cases suite should be included in the negative test cases. These test cases that are designed for validating the software behaviour against unacceptable, abnormal, or unexpected condition data input. 

Case 4: Collaboration between QAs and other team members

• QAs don't collaborate equally in the team and they end up working either completely or partially on their own. QAs should always communicate clearly about the testing scenarios, testing strategies with other team members and also share their research work and ideas that can be helpful for the project.

Case 5: Participate in all project meetings

• QAs should participate in all meetings, this allows them to acquire in-depth knowledge of the project from an end-user perspective and also develop a collegial network with other stakeholders on the project.

Case 6: Checklists for common scenarios are missing

• Always keep test cases or checklists handy for common scenarios that a user will come across during the testing. These checks should cover all the scenarios across that feature.

Case 7: Test data is not sufficient

• Seldom the test data created by QAs is not sufficient. Try to test by restoring production databases i.e with real-time data. 

Case 8: Poor site performance

• Try to increase the load on the system by setting up performance tests and by sending multiple requests in parallel. 

Case 9: UAT and QA environment metrics differ

• QAs and customers should follow the same environment and device metrics. This should be defined and approved as a part of the test plan.

Case 10: Regression tests are missing

• Extensive regression testing before UAT is very important. Also, a regression test case suite should be present.

We should always focus on breaking the system in all possible ways to reduce the count of User Acceptance Testing bugs. 

Happy Testing!