Editing Acceptance testing (section)

{{short description|Test to determine if the requirements of a specification or contract are met}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2020}}
[[File:US Navy 090407-N-4669J-042 Sailors assigned to the air department of the aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush (CVN 77) test the ship's catapult systems during acceptance trials.jpg|thumb|right|Acceptance testing of an [[aircraft catapult]]]]
[[File:James Webb Primary Mirror.jpg|thumb|right|Six of the primary mirrors of the [[James Webb Space Telescope]] being prepared for acceptance testing]]
In [[engineering]] and its various [[fields of engineering|subdisciplines]], '''acceptance testing''' is a test conducted to determine if the requirements of a [[specification]] or [[contract]] are met. It may involve [[chemical test]]s, [[physical test]]s, or [[Performance test (assessment)|performance test]]s.<ref>{{Cite web |title=BPTS - Is Business process testing the best name / description. |url=https://sfia-online.org/en/sfia-8/change-requests/bpts-is-business-process-testing-the-best-name-description |access-date=2023-02-18 |website=SFIA |language=en}}</ref>

In [[systems engineering]], it may involve [[black-box testing]] performed on a [[system]] (for example: a piece of [[software system|software]], lots of manufactured mechanical parts, or batches of chemical products) prior to its delivery.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Black |first=Rex |url=https://archive.org/details/managingtestingp00rexb |title=Managing the Testing Process: Practical Tools and Techniques for Managing Hardware and Software Testing |date=August 2009 |publisher=Hoboken, NJ: Wiley |isbn=978-0-470-40415-7 |url-access=registration}}</ref>

In [[software testing]], the [[International Software Testing Qualifications Board|ISTQB]] defines ''acceptance testing'' as: {{Blockquote|text=Formal testing with respect to user needs, requirements, and business processes conducted to determine whether a system satisfies the [[acceptance criteria]]<ref>{{Cite web |date=2019-06-10 |title=acceptance criteria |url=https://innolution.com/resources/glossary/acceptance-criteria |publisher=Innolution, LLC}}</ref> and to enable the user, customers or other authorized entity to determine whether to accept the system.|source=Standard Glossary of Terms used in Software Testing<ref>{{Cite web |title=Standard Glossary of Terms used in Software Testing, Version 3.2: All Terms |url=https://glossary.istqb.org|access-date=November 23, 2020 |publisher=[[International Software Testing Qualifications Board|ISTQB]] |format=PDF}}</ref>{{rp|2}} |title=|author=}} The final test in the QA lifecycle, user acceptance testing, is conducted just before the final release to assess whether the product or application can handle real-world scenarios. By replicating user behavior, it checks if the system satisfies business requirements and rejects changes if certain criteria are not met.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-11-24 |title=User Acceptance Testing (UAT) - Software Testing |url=https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/user-acceptance-testing-uat/ |access-date=2024-05-23 |website=GeeksforGeeks |language=en-US}}</ref>

Some forms of acceptance testing are, [[user acceptance testing]] (UAT), end-user testing, [[operational acceptance testing]] (OAT), [[acceptance test-driven development]] (ATDD) and field (acceptance) testing. Acceptance criteria are the criteria that a system or component must satisfy in order to be accepted by a user, customer, or other authorized entity.<ref>{{Cite book |title=ISO/IEC/IEEE International Standard - Systems and software engineering |publisher=ISO/IEC/IEEE |year=2010 |pages=vol., no., pp.1–418}}</ref>