So you’ve got some interest in your idea. The Developers ready for consistent work, users are begging for more features, and your minds racing with future possibilities.
If you’re like most business owners, product founders, or solo entrepreneur software development probably isn’t your strongest skill set.
Even if you are technologically gifted, software testing might not be your thing.
This isn’t a problem. There’s a specific type of testing that works perfect for product owners that we’ll cover today called acceptance testing. All you need is to understand the product and your customers.
What’s An Acceptance Test?
Acceptance testing tries to answer one question.
Is this ready to be shippped? A.K.A – “Are the suites ok with this?”
By this point the application should have went through a few rounds of testing. Acceptance is to confirm that the product is ready for the end-users.
Why It’s Important?
Acceptance testing is important because you’re testing specifically from a customers point of view.
Things can be lost in the shuffle during the development process.
You’ll need to come up for fresh air. Acceptance testing can be that time.
Side not for crews that contract out some development. When your getting code from a vendor sometimes you don’t really know how much testing has been done. Metrics related to acceptance testing are important to gain confidence in what’s being delivered.
Shouldn’t Tester Be Doing This?
No. For acceptance testing you want fresh eyes on the product.
There are two groups that normally handle this:
- Members of Product Management, Sales and/or Customer Support. People in the company who did not develop the software. This can be called “Internal Acceptance Testing” aka Alpha Testing.
- Potential customers & people who aren’t employees. aka Beta Test.
Keys To Acceptance Testing
Keep it Short
Acceptance testing is normally short and there may be multiple code drops and, therefore, multiple mini acceptance tests in the validation process.
Keep it Loose
Acceptance testing is ad-hoc. The first rule of acceptance testing is, there is no rules. This type of testing shouldn’t follow a strict procedure & isn’t scripted.
How Testers Can Help
Testers can help product owners with acceptance test by giving them a few scenarios to run through just to get the ball rolling.
It’s also important to let Product know what testing has already been done, and the results of such testing at a high level.
One response to “Testing Without Coding Skills”
[…] Army of one – shot me an email and I’ll help you out. You could even have friends do some testing, because it’s possible to test without coding skills. […]