After the release is approved in QA testing, the release package will be sent for User Acceptance Testing (UAT). In this stage, stakeholders and end users company-wide test the release processes in the 'real world' and give their feedback. Initially, you must map out a detailed plan for the UAT, outlining business requirements and strategy. Identify and create test cases that cover as many functional cases faced by users as possible. Then select users who can trial the release processes and provide feedback. You can offer the release package to the intended users as a beta trial or early adoption.
The users will initially do functionality checks of the processes involved in the release. If the processes succeed in functionality tests, then the users will test the release package against valid data in the production environment and determine whether the processes meet the proposed business requirements.
All issues found during the UAT must be carefully documented to follow up on the resolution. Potential bugs and high-priority functionality issues will be immediately fixed. Other issues will be added to the pipeline of the next iteration. The UAT team approves the release after ensuring that the processes involved function as expected.
UAT is crucial for any product release because of the huge amount of 'real-world' data used for testing of processes and user validation. UAT takes a holistic approach to the release, thus bringing deep insights on the release design, release execution, customer expectations and experience, and more.