User Acceptance Testing

Software issues exist. It can be a breakdown in the programming, developing, or for other reasons. These bugs can make it difficult for a user to buy the software and feel that it is reliable. As a result of this need for reliability and verification there are software testing options. One method is the user acceptance testing.

User acceptance testing is based solely on usability of the software as opposed to performance or function. In user acceptance testing a computer developer will examine how easy it is to get the program to load. Furthermore, they will look at having multiple users. We can use a web host example to explain user acceptance testing.

A web host provides a control panel with multiple user accounts. You have an administration account, lower level user accounts, and those in between. You might want a user to have access to some tools, but not others in the control panel. Thus you need different accounts. With user acceptance testing the developer is looking to see if the program will handle multiple accounts and how many before it becomes overloaded. It might be that the program can only handle and recognize three user accounts.

To test the user accounts, user acceptance testing will set up fake accounts. It will then proceed to test the abilities of these multiple accounts with a control. User acceptance testing can be performed with automated software testing or manual testing. Automated testing is often more cost effective for the software company.

Another example of user acceptance testing is on your PC. A PC can have multiple user accounts. Each account could have its own password, applications, and even desktop picture. Files could in some cases be shared through the computer by one user to another. However, sometimes a password protection can be put in place to lock certain files. The administrative user would have full access to all accounts and programs. The user testing would look to see if there are any bugs that could render one account completely shut off. It would then fix that error to ensure the user doesn't experience it.

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