The primary concern of the user during acceptance testing is that the deliverables meet the user requirements. The specific concerns during this phase are:

Meets specifications

All of the deliverables provided by the contractor meet the user requirements as specified in the contract.

On time

The delivered products will be in the hands of the user on the date specified on the contract.

Adequate test data

The customer should prepare sufficient test data so that the deliverables can be adequately tested. For application systems, this may be test transactions to verify the processing performed by the application. The acceptance test criteria for training courses and manuals may be review and examination. For example, the contractor may be asked to put on a training class in order to determine the adequacy of the material.

Preparation for operation

Any supporting activities should be completed in time for acceptance testing. This may involve the ordering of forms, making changes to existing operating systems, and other application systems, developing procedures to use the application, etc. The customer should have identified these needs during the feasibility phase, and worked on meeting those requirements while the contractor was preparing the application system.

User training

The users of the application should be trained prior to the acceptance test phase. This training may be provided by the organization itself, or it may be done by the contractor.

When can it begin

Acceptance testing should occur on the date which was specified in the contract.

Conversion to production

The procedures and steps necessary to put the application into production should be tested during the acceptance testing phase. These are normally customer obligations to prepare files, schedule production, etc. These procedures should be tested just as vigorously as the contractor’s application system.