Book Review - UAT Defined: A Guide to Practical User Acceptance Testing by Rob Cimperman
Category Book Reviews
I was recently asked if I would be interested in reviewing one of Addison Wesley's Digital Short Cut titles... UAT Defined: A Guide to Practical User Acceptance Testing by Rob Cimperman. I'm not normally chomping at the bit to read or review digital titles, as the laptop does not sit well on my chest when I'm reading in bed. :) But after viewing this one, I may have to alter my reading habits. I like the concept and this particular title...
Contents: Introduction; Defining UAT - What It Is... and What It Is Not; Test Planning - Setting the Stage for UAT Success; Building the Team - Transforming Users into Testers; Executing UAT - Tracking and Reporting; Mitigating Risk - Your Primary Responsibility
The Digital Short Cut series are "books" designed to be downloaded and read from your computer or other digital device. The format is perfect for subjects or niches that aren't big enough for a full book treatment, but are far larger than your typical article in a computer magazine or website. In UAT Defined, Cimperman focuses on the user acceptance testing process that should be part and parcel of your software development cycle. He starts by defining the role and use of user acceptance testing, and why it often is confused with system testing. Where system testing is meant to find system flaws and bugs, user acceptance testing is designed to confirm that the system meets the requirements that were spelled out at the start of the project, and that the customer will accept the software for use. By the time you get to this point, you shouldn't be finding buttons that don't work and functions that cause crashes. The goal should be to make sure that the business functions and processes are covered with the delivered software. The remainder of the chapters flesh out a structure for effective user acceptance testing, as well as tracking of the results. At 119 pages, it's a relatively quick read with no real fluff... just direct information related to the subject at hand.
Cimperman also understands the reality of how UAT often plays out in the organization. When quality is low and deliverables are failing, a UAT program is often conceived as the answer. As that function is built up, application design improves and things get better. But after a time, UAT is seen as an overhead that could be cut to save costs. As the importance of the function declines due to cutbacks, quality suffers. Which leads to a reaction of adding or staffing up a UAT section, and so on. Since he understands how businesses oscillate on this issue, he also knows that developing a UAT is not a "once and done" effort. It's something that requires hard work to implement and diligence to maintain.
If you're at the stage where you know you need something more than just a simple "here you go" to your customers, this title can help. And if you've stayed away from digital editions of titles because you have a paper fetish, consider rethinking it. You could be missing some useful information, like I was...
I was recently asked if I would be interested in reviewing one of Addison Wesley's Digital Short Cut titles... UAT Defined: A Guide to Practical User Acceptance Testing by Rob Cimperman. I'm not normally chomping at the bit to read or review digital titles, as the laptop does not sit well on my chest when I'm reading in bed. :) But after viewing this one, I may have to alter my reading habits. I like the concept and this particular title...
Contents: Introduction; Defining UAT - What It Is... and What It Is Not; Test Planning - Setting the Stage for UAT Success; Building the Team - Transforming Users into Testers; Executing UAT - Tracking and Reporting; Mitigating Risk - Your Primary Responsibility
The Digital Short Cut series are "books" designed to be downloaded and read from your computer or other digital device. The format is perfect for subjects or niches that aren't big enough for a full book treatment, but are far larger than your typical article in a computer magazine or website. In UAT Defined, Cimperman focuses on the user acceptance testing process that should be part and parcel of your software development cycle. He starts by defining the role and use of user acceptance testing, and why it often is confused with system testing. Where system testing is meant to find system flaws and bugs, user acceptance testing is designed to confirm that the system meets the requirements that were spelled out at the start of the project, and that the customer will accept the software for use. By the time you get to this point, you shouldn't be finding buttons that don't work and functions that cause crashes. The goal should be to make sure that the business functions and processes are covered with the delivered software. The remainder of the chapters flesh out a structure for effective user acceptance testing, as well as tracking of the results. At 119 pages, it's a relatively quick read with no real fluff... just direct information related to the subject at hand.
Cimperman also understands the reality of how UAT often plays out in the organization. When quality is low and deliverables are failing, a UAT program is often conceived as the answer. As that function is built up, application design improves and things get better. But after a time, UAT is seen as an overhead that could be cut to save costs. As the importance of the function declines due to cutbacks, quality suffers. Which leads to a reaction of adding or staffing up a UAT section, and so on. Since he understands how businesses oscillate on this issue, he also knows that developing a UAT is not a "once and done" effort. It's something that requires hard work to implement and diligence to maintain.
If you're at the stage where you know you need something more than just a simple "here you go" to your customers, this title can help. And if you've stayed away from digital editions of titles because you have a paper fetish, consider rethinking it. You could be missing some useful information, like I was...
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Comments
Posted by Rob Cimperman At 20:53:37 On 05/12/2011 | - Website - |
Posted by Thomas Duff At 10:52:42 On 06/12/2011 | - Website - |