Operational Acceptance Testing
Encyclopedia
Operational acceptance testing (OAT) is a type of software testing
, used mainly in software support and software maintenance
projects. This type of testing focuses on the operational readiness of the system to be supported, or which is to become the production environment. Hence, it is also known as operational readiness testing. Functional testing
of applications is not be included or merged in OAT.
It may include checking the backup
facilities, maintenance and disaster recovery
procedures. In OAT changes are made to environmental parameters which the application uses to run smoothly. For example, with Microsoft Windows
applications with a mixed or hybrid architecture, this may include: Windows service
s, configuration file
s, web services, XML
files, COM+ components, web services, IIS
, stored procedures in databases, etc. This type of testing is conducted before user acceptance testing.
The approach used in OAT includes these steps:
Then checks are made on how the application is behaving, and moreover how the system is behaving as a whole in these conditions. Backup procedures are also checked to ensure proper operation under emergency conditions.
For running the OAT test case
s, the tester normally has exclusive access to the system or environment. This means that a single tester would be executing the test cases at a single point of time. For OAT the exact OR quality gates are defined, both entry and exit gate. All activities are listed which would be part and covered in the different phases of testing, with primary emphasis be on the operational part of the system.
There are various aspects of OAT –
Software testing
Software testing is an investigation conducted to provide stakeholders with information about the quality of the product or service under test. Software testing can also provide an objective, independent view of the software to allow the business to appreciate and understand the risks of software...
, used mainly in software support and software maintenance
Software maintenance
Software Maintenance in software engineering is the modification of a software product after delivery to correct faults, to improve performance or other attributes....
projects. This type of testing focuses on the operational readiness of the system to be supported, or which is to become the production environment. Hence, it is also known as operational readiness testing. Functional testing
Functional testing
Functional testing is a type of black box testing that bases its test cases on the specifications of the software component under test. Functions are tested by feeding them input and examining the output, and internal program structure is rarely considered .Functional testing differs from system...
of applications is not be included or merged in OAT.
It may include checking the backup
Backup
In information technology, a backup or the process of backing up is making copies of data which may be used to restore the original after a data loss event. The verb form is back up in two words, whereas the noun is backup....
facilities, maintenance and disaster recovery
Disaster recovery
Disaster recovery is the process, policies and procedures related to preparing for recovery or continuation of technology infrastructure critical to an organization after a natural or human-induced disaster. Disaster recovery is a subset of business continuity...
procedures. In OAT changes are made to environmental parameters which the application uses to run smoothly. For example, with Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
applications with a mixed or hybrid architecture, this may include: Windows service
Windows Service
On Microsoft Windows operating systems, a Windows service is a long-running executable that performs specific functions and which is designed not to require user intervention. Windows services can be configured to start when the operating system is booted and run in the background as long as...
s, configuration file
Configuration file
In computing, configuration files, or config files configure the initial settings for some computer programs. They are used for user applications, server processes and operating system settings. The files are often written in ASCII and line-oriented, with lines terminated by a newline or carriage...
s, web services, XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
files, COM+ components, web services, IIS
Internet Information Services
Internet Information Services – formerly called Internet Information Server – is a web server application and set of feature extension modules created by Microsoft for use with Microsoft Windows. It is the most used web server after Apache HTTP Server. IIS 7.5 supports HTTP, HTTPS,...
, stored procedures in databases, etc. This type of testing is conducted before user acceptance testing.
The approach used in OAT includes these steps:
- Build the system,
- Deploy the application,
- Supportability of the system.
- Validate the backup procedure setup for the system
Then checks are made on how the application is behaving, and moreover how the system is behaving as a whole in these conditions. Backup procedures are also checked to ensure proper operation under emergency conditions.
For running the OAT test case
Test case
A test case in software engineering is a set of conditions or variables under which a tester will determine whether an application or software system is working correctly or not. The mechanism for determining whether a software program or system has passed or failed such a test is known as a test...
s, the tester normally has exclusive access to the system or environment. This means that a single tester would be executing the test cases at a single point of time. For OAT the exact OR quality gates are defined, both entry and exit gate. All activities are listed which would be part and covered in the different phases of testing, with primary emphasis be on the operational part of the system.
There are various aspects of OAT –
- Fail over testing (resilliance testing)
- Component fail-over
- Network fail-over
- Alerting/alarming (to ensure proper alerts are configured in the system if something goes wrong)
- Backup and recovery testing – to ensure that backup and recovery is successful