Acceptance testing is a process aimed at checking whether software product compiles its requirements specification.

Acceptance testing is a final testing designed to simulate the anticipated real usage of the software application to ensure that it is fully functional and meets the demands of the end user.  Software testing outsourcing companies run acceptance tests after functional, regression and system types of testing.

The Goals of Acceptance Testing:

• Determine if the system meets acceptance criteria.
• Decide whether to approve the product for release or send it back to further development.

Common Test Objects:

• Exploitation.
• Operation & maintenance processes.
• Business processes to fully integrated system.
• Reports.

Acceptance testing means agreement or approval; it is usually done with the involvement of offshore software testing team to evaluate the state of the product. As a rule, such process is carried out when the customers want to receive the independent opinion on the quality of the application they are buying.

Advantages of Acceptance Testing:

• Helps to detect user interface bugs.
• The users themselves are engaged in this phase of software development to make sure that the app can handle set tasks in a real-world environment.

Acceptance Testing Types:

Factory acceptance testing (FAT) is done by project development team so as to ensure that the application has been finished to the required quality. This testing type is also called as alpha testing.  

Production acceptance testing, operational acceptance testing is an important part of software development lifecycle and is run before the product is deployed or released to ensure that all its aspects do not have the impact on the functionality.

Site acceptance testing (SAT) is a testing of software products or corresponding documentation; it is conducted at the purchaser’s site by the customer’s representatives. The end users verify whether the system and its components work correctly based on the procedures that are approved by the client.