What does UAT mean in COMPUTING

User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is a type of testing conducted to verify if a software system meets the business requirements and functional specifications as per the end user's expectations. Through this testing, the end user can validate that the system is able to meet its intended purpose.

UAT is typically performed by actual users of the application or customers. It is important to involve those with direct experience in using the software and knowledge of how it should be used in their daily activities.

UAT occurs after a software development/testing team has determined the application fulfills all requirements and passed all tests from unit, integration, and functional perspectives.

Conducting UAT before releasing a software product helps ensure its quality, enhances customer satisfaction, decreases maintenance costs, prevents errors, increases ROI on invested resources and provides users with an overall better experience when using the system.

Whereas other types of testing such as unit and integration tests focus on code-level issues within a system, UATs typically focus on verifying whether or not a system meets specific business needs. In other words, whereas unit and integration tests have technical objectives, UATs have customer-facing objectives.

During an acceptance test, most teams will test various scenarios that represent high usage volumes or long durations of time as well as any other extreme conditions need for proper load balancing for instance. For example teams could simulate hundreds of concurrent users during peak periods or challenging server environments such as low memory or slow network connections..

Yes! Testers might also be required to act as facilitators between developers and stakeholders during User Acceptance Tests in order for them to gain further insights into how customers use a product in practice rather than what was envisioned by designers/developers/stakeholders at design phase.

Setting up clear goals/objectives that define what should realistically be achieved; investing in preparation such as setting up environment/data prior to running tests etc.; achieving good coverage; creating standards & templates so each user follows same guidelines throughout cycle; writing robust bug reports; establishing communication channels between developers & stakeholders; measuring performance against expected metrics & lastly following up closely & continuously coaching testers throughout process are just some best practices that can help manage effective user acceptance tests.