Testing ASP.NET Web Applications

Chapter 6. Acceptance Testing

In the previous chapters, the focus has been on ensuring that you build the application correctly, making sure that all the code you write works as you expect now, and going forward. With software, there is an important role to play which is often overlooked — the customer. Although knowing that you've built the system right is important, it is equally as important to know that you've built the right system for your customer.

Considering the customer at every stage of the development process is important for the success of the system. Too often, the customer is handed a fully developed application, only to find it does nothing they wanted. This is an expensive and embarrassing mistake but sadly still happens on many different projects.

Acceptance testing is focused on the customer. The customer can be any stakeholder of the system, but is generally focused on the end-user who will be using the system. Within a project there is generally more than one customer with a different point of view and workflow, which need to be taken into account when testing.

With acceptance testing, the aim is not to ensure the system works but to ensure the application meets the customer requirements. This chapter investigates a number of different ways this can be achieved and the various techniques that can be introduced under the banner of acceptance testing. There are different ways to implement acceptance testing, with people using different terminology for different ...