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UAT Best Practices: From Test Plan to Sign‑Off

User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is the formal validation step in which real end users verify that the (e.g., KGT) solutions meet business requirements and are fit for production. UAT confirms that workflows, data, and outputs behave as expected in realistic scenarios before go‑live.

Why UAT is important

  • Confirms business requirements: Validates that the delivered system satisfies the agreed business needs and acceptance criteria.
  • Reduces production risk: Detects functional gaps, usability problems, and data issues that escaped earlier testing layers.
  • Ensures user readiness: Helps users become familiar with the system and surface training needs.
  • Improves quality and compliance: Provides traceable sign-off for auditors, stakeholders, and regulatory requirements.
  • Saves cost/time: Finding and fixing defects before production is cheaper and faster than post‑release remediation.

What’s needed to perform UAT (best practices)

1. Clear objectives and scope

  • Define what will and will not be tested (features, integrations, business processes, data flows).
  • Link each UAT activity to specific acceptance criteria.

2. Stakeholder engagement and roles

  • Business owners / process owners: define acceptance criteria and sign off results.
  • End-user representatives: execute test scenarios and provide feedback.
  • SMEs (tax, finance, operations): validate domain-specific outcomes.
  • Test coordinator / UAT lead: manage planning, execution, reporting, and sign-off.
  • IT/support: provide environment, fixes, and triage defects.

3. Formal UAT plan and entry/exit criteria

  • UAT plan with schedule, scope, roles, tools, defect process, reporting cadence.
  • Entry criteria: development complete, integration tested, environment ready, test data available.
  • Exit criteria: all critical/high defects resolved or mitigated, agreed acceptance by business, and sign-off.

4. Realistic test scenarios and cases

  • Build end‑to‑end, business‑centric scenarios (not just positive functional checks).
  • Include edge cases, exception paths, approvals, and reconciliation steps.
  • Map test cases to acceptance criteria and requirements.

5. Representative test data and environments

  • Use anonymized production-like data to reflect real volumes and edge cases.
  • Dedicated UAT environment that mirrors production (integrations, configurations, tax codes, interfaces).
  • Stability and performance comparable to production where possible.

6. Test management and defect lifecycle

  • Use a defect-tracking tool (e.g., Jira, TestRail, ALM) and standardized severity/Priority definitions.
  • Triage meetings with business and IT to prioritize fixes.
  • Regression testing for any code/config changes during UAT.

7. Training, scripts, and support

  • Provide UAT participants with test scripts, quick reference guides, and a short training session.
  • Establish a support channel (Slack/email/desk) and response SLA for questions and fixes.

8. Reporting and metrics

  • Track progress: planned vs executed tests, pass/fail rate, open defects by severity, time to resolution.
  • Daily or cadence-based status reports for stakeholders.

9. Acceptance and sign-off

  • Business sign-off document capturing scope, outstanding issues, risk acceptance, and go/no-go decision.
  • Include rollback/mitigation plans where needed.

10. Post-UAT activities

  • Address any remaining defects or plan remediation windows.
  • Execute a go‑to‑production checklist (data migration validations, cutover steps, backups).
  • Conduct a lessons-learned review and update test artifacts and runbooks.

Quick UAT checklist

  • UAT plan and schedule approved
  • Business testers assigned and trained
  • Acceptance criteria defined and traced to test cases
  • Production-like test environment available
  • Test data prepared and validated
  • Defect process and tools in place
  • Regression plan for fixes
  • Reporting cadence established
  • Sign-off template ready