Why No UAT in Agile

Everyone familiar with Agile will always wonder why there is no UAT (User Acceptance Testing) stage. UAT is a critical stage in waterfall model and determines the deployment of codes to production. On the contrary, Agile testing is different from UAT stage. These are some real life views on why there is no UAT in Agile.

Too Late for UAT

UAT occurs in the last stage of a waterfall SDLC (Software Development Lifecycle). If there are any failure in the user testing, the requirements will be stated as change request and restart from stage one. When such scenario happens, delays of Go Live always happens. Agile aims to eliminate such surprise by involving testing as early as possible.

UAT vs Done

UAT places the acceptance in the hands of users. In many cases, these users are not committed throughout the entire project and only participate only at UAT stage. The lack of understanding and commitment of test users will lead to many issues and clarifications with development team. On the other hand, Agile places importance on the definition of Done. High quality deliverable is expected with close collaboration of users and developers.

As Agile gains popularity, UAT is no longer seen as effective stage for production deployment. Instead, test driven approach and Agile testing are commonly used. Future management must learn to adapt to this new paradigm.