Skip to main content

How to handle "UAT" in Agile/DevOps delivery

User Acceptance when done properly is very effective.  But in most cases i have seen companies taking this to the extreme especially in companies who were following traditional waterfall process

People are used to do certain things in certain way for long. It is difficult for them to change. Moreover there is a trust factor. They don't (or wont) trust the quality of the software unless they verify it. The result is complex long UAT period where someone from "UAT testing" team as to test  and approve before the product can be released to production. They even refuse to share their test cases with others. And in many cases i have seen that this testing might not find real bugs or is even related to user acceptance. This is the remnant of old way of doing things and this should change in modern Agile  DevOps delivery. Ideally the UAT period should be very small and if possible eliminate this stage completely.

The Agile Coaches and scrum masters will have to "train" other in this modern way of thinking

All the UAT test scenarios should be part of the User stories. When the sprint is done , ideally the product should be of "potentiality shippable " quality.

I would engage the stakeholders and other UAT testers much before. They should be part of backlog grooming where they can provide the feedback on the user stories. they should be present during the sprint demo . Team should demo these scenarios to Product Owner (and UAT/stakeholders). It will be great if these can be automated. Once people realize that all the testing they are doing was already done and is automated , they may be willing to change their approach. you can also show the "waste" in the system because of this effort duplication.Even then they may insist on doing the separate UAT phase but if there are no bugs found during the UAT testing you may get better support. Automation will be the key weapon which you can use. even if they insist on separate "testing" phase because of the automation the duration will be very less. Gradually this will help in the cultural change.

A proper automation from start including the business teams and delivery teams can be implemented if you follow Behavior Driven Development (BDD)

Check these for additional information


  1. https://cucumber.io/
  2. https://specflow.org/
Contact me if you need any additional help/input/coaching on these topics
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

PDCA & SCRUM (or Agile); Why is it important?

The PDCA (Plan DO Check Act) cycle was made popular by Dr. W. Edwards Deming. This is a scientific cyclic process which can be used to improve the process (or product). This is cyclic in nature and usually time boxed. Plan  This is the first stage of the process. During this step the team discusses the objectives, the process and the clear conditions of exit (conditions of acceptance). This stage sets the measurable and achievable goals for the team. DO Team works together to achieve the objective set in the planning phase. Team works with the set of agreed process. Check Once the implantation is done team regroups and verifies the output and compares it to the agreed conditions of acceptance decided during the planning phase. The deviation, if any, is noted down. ACT If any deviation in planned tasks is observed during the Check stage, a root cause analysis is conducted. Team brainstorms and identifies the changes required to prevent such deviatio...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why is potentially shippable product quality important

Agile teams work in iterations. During this period, they are supposed to work on product increments which can be “delivered” at the end of iteration. But how you know that the correct product was delivered? Many teams have different kinds of acceptance criteria and Definition of Done (DoD). But in many cases, this “done” is not the real “done” there might be some testing pending, some integration or review pending or anything else which prevents the actual use of the product increment. Many of these teams will need additional iterations to finish hardening their products. Many teams will implement different types of “gates” or approval steps to move to next stage. The free flow of product will be interrupted. They might end up doing mini waterfall within their agile process. Many don’t even realize this. This results in poor quality and requires additional effort to “harden” the product. Potentially Shippable Product increment The acceptance criteria and DoD should be modified...
Post a Comment
Read more

Embracing Frequent Delivery: The Key to Success with modern product development

  One of my favorite story is about how Google Chrome surpassed Microsoft's Internet Explorer by leveraging its rapid release strategy. Without fail I repeat this in almost every training I give to my team.  In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, the traditional approach of infrequent software releases is being replaced by a more agile and dynamic methodology: frequent delivery. Embracing frequent delivery not only enhances user experience but also enables organizations to stay ahead of the competition.  User Experience Frequent delivery empowers organizations to continuously improve their software products based on user feedback and evolving market demands. By rapidly addressing bugs, implementing enhancements, and introducing new features, organizations can provide an exceptional user experience. Many years ago, Internet Explorer(IE) was the most popular browser. There were many other small browsers but none had the reach of IE. Then google entered the market tr...
Post a Comment
Read more