Acceptance Testing: What It is and How To Do It Better-In Context

When test engineers use the term "acceptance testing," they might be saying and thinking profoundly different things. Acceptance testing can mean one of at least a dozen approaches to the testing of a product and serve one or more of at least thirty different customer roles in a project. Tests and testing approaches that are appropriate in one context can be unacceptable - even disastrous - in another. When someone asks you to do user acceptance testing, what should you do? When should you do it? How do you determine success? Michael Bolton outlines the ways in which testers and test managers use context-driven thinking to better serve the mission of acceptance testing and develop skills to handle dramatically different testing situations.