The nature of your strategy will determine the level of detail required. If you allocate test tasks at an individual or department level, you will need a granular plan combining the task, test case, user, and timescale.
If you’re adopting a looser ‘crowd’ style strategy, the allocation of individual tasks becomes less of an issue in the first instance, but the monitoring of who has done what (or has not been done) becomes more important.
The crowd approach broadly involves making test cases available to anyone with the time and skills to carry them out and monitoring the results with a pre-determined execution and pass level. The advantages of this are that it is more dynamic and resource availability determines the progress with a greater sense of visibility of the whole project creating greater accountability.
Collaborate with User department heads.
The collaboration will allow for faster access to resources as and when needed through early planning of who will do what, when and what is needed.
Things to consider
- Publish goals, approach and timescales company-wide
- Determine skills, names and availability of seconded resources
- Establish communication methods and frequency
- Use a central platform to enhance visibility and remove the reporting burden.
- Plan the sequence and dependencies of tests.
- Allocate time, resources, and areas for exploratory testing.
- Consider timescales.
- Determine resources.
- Plan communication and access to the central platform.
Exploratory testing
Exploratory testing is essential for ensuring high-quality and successful UAT. The UAT’s value as a whole may depend on many factors, not least the influence you have over the final users. The less influence, the more exploratory testing you should conduct to better understand the results and their accuracy.
For example, suppose you have a small group of dedicated in-house users who will be committed to rigorously following the UAT process. In that case, exploratory testing will not be a major factor or relevant to your test. However, suppose the application will be publicly rolled out on a mass scale and contain sensitive or valuable information. In that case, internal exploratory testing may be critical for ensuring your testing process is functional.
Exploratory testing may have been included in earlier quality assurance phases if the software is being developed internally. Still, it is also good practice for the end-user to test the software too before distribution.
Communicate the plan to managers and individuals
- Hold briefing sessions as a group
- Inform individual business units
- Consider how they will be notified of changes and progress
- Provide access to key stakeholders to central dashboards and metrics
As with any testing process, not all phases need to be implemented within every project, but each should be considered to achieve the best possible outcome.
We are covering the whole approach to UAT in a step-by-step guide. You can read the next part, Execution, or any of the other sections here:
Detailed plan
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