TAU of UAT – Awareness

As with an individual living and cultivating the Tao, for any software project an understanding of the challenges, and specific types of processes required, is imperative before the project starts.

The concept of awareness is best described as an awareness of the Tao together with the capabilities that enable a person to follow the Tao.

This results from an individual living and cultivating the Tao, as with any software project an understanding of the challenges, and specific types of processes required, is imperative before the project starts. Armed with this awareness the project can be planned accordingly to ensure a positive outcome.

Unfortunately, many companies see UAT as the poor relative of QA, it is not given much emphasis and relies on a lot of goodwill between departments to succeed.

The first concept to be aware of is that you need to implement a system specifically designed for the task, this will be the only way to be fully prepared and aligned with what will come.

The UAT project in some ways is a unique phase in the SDLC, time for non-dedicated UAT resources is needed and quite often the wrong people are tasked with doing the job, as the right people have no time.

Using a dedicated UAT system will allow testing to be planned, the correct users to be allocated and progress tracked. With schedules agreed and visible for all parties, this allows a reduction on the time impact on business users, and therefore on the business overall.

In all companies some knowledge Islands will eventually form, this is where only certain people know how to run a specific test or application functional areas. This increases lead times to test and extends the final delivery date. Original’s business process capture can ensure that every test is documented with full steps for any process in word or animation and held against any specific UAT test case. Anyone with access to the system can now run a specific test if required this allows drawing from a larger pool of UAT resources which enables a speedier release.

Finally, business users have no time to learn about testing or acclimatize to new tools. As UAT continues to rely on spreadsheets, emails, and the occasional screenshot these slow down progress, are insecure, and inconsistent. Original’s UAT solutions take minutes to learn and are indestructible.  The test documentation load is removed from business users immediately while the quality of test results is transformed.

Jonathan Pearson is a qualified yoga instructor and Customer Success Manager at Original Software.