Acceptance Testing ensures that any new or upgraded system meets the business requirements of the end-users and suits their operational and business procedures. The business benefits of carefully and comprehensively undertaking Acceptance Testing can include:

• Delivery of a system that has the desired functionality, supporting existing, changed, and new business processes;
• Clearly defined limitations on scope and consequently, budget and development timeframe;
• Enhanced credibility of the system;
• Greater end-user confidence in the system and a greater sense of ownership through their involvement in testing it; and
• A well-defined conclusion to system development when all stakeholders can review the project, celebrate it’s success, and reflect on the valuable experience gained from the development process.

In addition, there are a number of potential operational benefits:

• Less risk of disruption to normal work activities through system failure;
• Validation of all manual and clerical procedures;
• Verification of control procedures and constraints to prevent improper use and enforce security standards;
• Checking of error-processing and exception procedures;
• Complete integration with existing systems, without negatively impacting those systems;
• Confirmation of the data-handling capacities and off-line processing and operating performance of the system; and
• Verification of accurate, complete, and understandable user, operation, and maintenance documentation.

Acceptance Testing allows sign-off and formal, official, acceptance of the system, dependant upon the system satisfying all contractual requirements and meeting all established Acceptance Criteria.

Acceptance Testing concerns the end-users of the system and the stakeholders. To gain their crucial acceptance, the system should:

• Fulfil its intended purpose and meet the business needs of the system end-users;
• Provide accurate and consistent results with defined combinations of data and under specified conditions;
• Be adequately documented and easy to use; and
• Be reliable and stable, and not adversely impact other systems.

There must always be clearly defined criteria on which to base acceptance of a system. For both system recipients and suppliers, the Acceptance Criteria provide a clear objective for successful completion of Acceptance Testing. Generally, these criteria will be itemised in the supplier contract, although where a contract does not exist (for example, if development is being done “in-house”) Criteria should be detailed in the Acceptance Test Plan.

Over and above the business requirements, Acceptance Criteria may specify:

• System performance and capacity;
• System useability;
• Data integrity and audit trails;
• System security and access;
• System recovery; and
• System reliability.

Acceptance Testing is one Phase in a Project, where the Project may be:

• Development and implementation of a new, custom-built system;
• Implementation of a new system based on a package (with or without modifications); or
• Minor or major upgrades to an existing system.

Acceptance Testing is independent of the system development process and performed by end-users and stakeholders before formally accepting the delivered product.

It is where the system is tested to ensure it meets all specified requirements of the system.  These requirements are usually determined prior to the sytem being purchased and/or implemented.