TLDR; QA or Quality Assurance is the act of testing a product to ensure it meets specified requirements. UAT or User Acceptance Testing is typically completed by an end-user, also referred to as beta testing.
When most people think about quality assurance, they think about manufacturing. Testing finished goods to ensure it adheres to a certain quality, design and regulatory standards. But the quality assurance process applies to many other industries as well, including software design. Quality assurance (QA) testing is an imperative part of finding software bugs, testing usability and designing a product that is intuitive and easy to use. At Blue Link ERP, our QA team works closely with the development team as part of our R&D department to test Blue Link’s ERP software and other systems before release. This process also includes user acceptance testing in which the customer works with our team to jointly test the product. Even with QA testing and user acceptance testing, it’s impossible to test every possible use-case scenario and so the monthly fee for Blue Link’s cloud-based solution includes the cost of maintenance to cover product warranty and upgrades. This means that if a user does find a bug in the system that was not caught during the testing phase, our in-house team of dedicated support reps will fix the issue or provide a workaround free of charge. Below, we take a closer look at the Blue Link QA department.
What does the Blue Link QA team do?
In addition to other tasks, the Blue Link QA team handles:
- Testing of all custom projects, upgrades, micro-projects and support issues
- Documenting and updating version release notes
- Working with the development team to fix any bugs and then documenting test cases for R&D to be used in the future
- Working with customers to do user acceptance testing of Blue Link products (more on this below)
- Learning new apps and getting familiar with new features and software versions
Essentially, the main purpose of the quality assurance department is to come up with innovative ways to find software bugs.
What is User Acceptance Testing?
User acceptance testing (or UAT), is described as the process of involving the customer and end-user in testing the software to determine if it meets the business’ needs. Also referred to as beta testing, end-user testing or joint testing, user acceptance testing gives the customer the authority to sign-off on the finished product. It’s impossible for any software company to understand the nuances of any given business, which means we would never be able to create all the possible test cases. It is also impossible to navigate through the system in the same way that any given customer or user would – although most pieces of technology today are intuitive to use, what might be intuitive to one person, may not to another. Therefore, UAT is the last test performed on the software after having been internally tested by the quality assurance team. Involving customers directly in the testing process helps to validate the software and functionality against the customer’s business processes and requirements.
Want to learn more about Blue Link’s Quality Assurance Department? Watch this video from the QA Manager, Monique Taza.
FAQs
UAT is focused on testing the software from the end user's perspective. QA is focused on ensuring the overall quality of the development process. UAT involves end users testing the application's functionality and usability. QA involves auditing and verifying processes, artifacts, and adherence to standards.
What is the difference between quality assurance and user acceptance testing? ›
TLDR; QA or Quality Assurance is the act of testing a product to ensure it meets specified requirements. UAT or User Acceptance Testing is typically completed by an end-user, also referred to as beta testing. When most people think about quality assurance, they think about manufacturing.
What comes first, UAT or QA? ›
What comes before UAT testing? All types of testing – unit, component, integration, system – that the testing or the quality assurance team does before it is approved for UAT comes before UAT testing.
What is acceptance testing in quality assurance? ›
Acceptance testing is a quality assurance (QA) process that determines to what degree an application meets end users' approval. Depending on the organization, acceptance testing might take the form of beta testing, application testing, field testing or end-user testing.
Can QA do UAT? ›
Yes and no. During the UAT, actual software users test the software to make sure it can handle required tasks in real-world scenarios, according to specifications. QA testing is there to ensure the prevention of problems before the “completed” web product is sent out for User Acceptance Testing (UAT).
What are the 4 types of acceptance testing? ›
Types of acceptance testing include:
- Alpha & Beta Testing.
- Contract Acceptance Testing.
- Regulation Acceptance Testing.
- Operational Acceptance testing.
For QA, Acceptance Criteria defines the scope of what is needed to be tested. It tells QA what is supposed to be tested, and what is not supposed to be tested. It describes what functionality is being implemented by the ticket.
Can QA and UAT happen at the same time? ›
At least, it was so when the waterfall approach was more prevalent, and the development was flowing linearly, with testing at the very end and UAT at the end of testing. With the adoption of Agile, though, UAT and QA practices complement each other or go hand in hand with the development of rather small chunks of code.
Who writes test cases for UAT? ›
The Business Analyst usually owns the UAT exercise and is the one to write the UAT test cases, organize the testing exercise, develop the issue log list and answer any questions on expected behavior based on the business requirements.
What are the 6 stages of acceptance testing? ›
How to Perform User Acceptance Testing
- Step 1) Analysis of Business Requirement and Goals. ...
- Step 2) Creation of a UAT Plan with Assignments. ...
- Step 3) Identify Test Scenarios and Test Cases. ...
- Step 4) Test Data Preparation. ...
- Step 5) Run the Tests and Track the Results. ...
- Step 6) Confirm Business Objectives Are Met.
System testing is performed by testers and developers, while end-users and clients perform User Acceptance Testing. System testing is responsible for testing the interfaces between the components and interactions to various systems parts like hardware, software, and interfaces among systems.
How to write UAT scenarios? ›
How to create UAT Test Scripts
- Define Objectives and Understand Business requirements. ...
- Stakeholders Involvement. ...
- Identify Test scenarios. ...
- Acceptance Criteria Documentation. ...
- Write Detailed steps. ...
- Ensure Completeness. ...
- Prioritize Test Cases. ...
- Review and Refine.
User acceptance test (UAT) criteria (in agile software development) are usually created by business customers and expressed in a business domain language. These are high-level tests to verify the completeness of a user story or stories 'played' during any sprint/iteration.
Who drives UAT testing? ›
It is based on the System/Feature Milestone – Testing is done based on meeting system/specs requirements. UAT is done by Clients, Stakeholders, and Testers. System testing is done by the Developer and Testers.
Who should approve UAT? ›
Approvals of the UAT Plan should be obtained from the Project Manager, Project Sponsors, and the Business Owner or designee and recorded before proceeding with UAT testing.
Is QA just testing? ›
QA and Testing are not the same concepts – QA is the strategy that encompasses Testing but much more and involves a much wider set of stakeholders. While Testing is focussed on code quality within a technical arena.
What is the difference between acceptance testing and qual testing? ›
The differences between acceptance and qualification testing, then, occur in the load levels and test durations, type of inspection and control, type of data required, and the test objectives. The load levels are usually lower in acceptance testing than in qualification testing, and the test duration is shorter.
What is the difference between UAT and PQ? ›
PQ is usually performed by the system developer or vendor, while UAT is performed by the end users or representatives. PQ tests the system against the FS, while UAT tests the system against the URS.
What is the difference between quality assurance and testing? ›
Quality Assurance aims to create and sustain a system for quality management that reliably produces high-quality output. Meanwhile, testing aims to find and fix code or finished product bugs. Its major purpose is to guarantee that the final product works as intended and satisfies every requirement.
What is the difference between user testing and user acceptance testing? ›
User Acceptance Testing aims to ensure that the product meets stakeholders' requirements, while Usability Testing aims to ensure the product is easy and intuitive for end-users.
