User Acceptance Testing

User Acceptance Testing (UAT) will be the first opportunity to run a solution unattended in an environment that mirrors production, as well as accessing and interacting with production versions of applications at full speed. It ensures that the solution meets the expectation and requirements of the business.

In order to move a solution in to the UAT phase, a deployment request is made to the Release Manager for permission to import a release package into the UAT environment. Ideally this would be a dedicated 'pre-production' environment but if this is unavailable, then a Test environment is advised.

UAT Phases

In line with the test plan, more than one UAT phase may be required. The test plan will also describe the number of cases to be processed during each phase, and what acceptance criteria must be satisfied before the process can progress to deployment.

In the event of unexpected scenarios or bugs, a decision is required to decide if the solution requires additional development and testing prior to acceptance, depending on the nature and potential impact of the problem.

The plan will also specify the level of validation provided by the SME once the solution has worked the test cases.

Sign-Off

Acceptance criteria within the test plan will identify when UAT testing is complete. Once all of the criteria have been satisfied the solution can be promoted to Production by the Release Manager. An Acceptance document will then be passed to the Business for official confirmation that UAT is complete.

Sign-off Document Recommendations

  • Business Requirements Summary
    • A brief description of the initial business requirements, including any requests for change
  • Process Delivery Summary
    • A brief summary of what has been delivered, including any changes in process scope. The latest PDD version must be referenced within the summary.
  • BAU responsibilities – Business Area
    • This section will confirm the responsibilities of the business, including processing business referrals, operational contingency requirements as well as all key names and contacts.
  • BAU responsibilities – Automation Team
    • A summary of the automation teams responsibilities, which will include operational hours and schedule information, process support hours, operational contingency as well as Blue Prism support policies and procedures
  • Risks and Issues
    • Any remaining process-related risks and issues must be documented. Particular attention must be paid to unseen test scenarios and business referrals outside of the PDD
  • Benefits and Savings
    • Although an estimate of benefits and savings will have been made during the process assessment stage, changes in process scope, performance etc may have changed the actual process benefits realized.

What are the key input and output documents for the UAT phase?

  • Testing Approach
  • Test Acceptance Criteria
  • Test Scripts
  • User Acceptance Test Plan 
  • User Acceptance Test Results
  • UAT Sign Off
  • Deployment Request - Created
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