15 Jun UAT vs. SIT Testing in QA (2021)

UAT and SIT testing are the two different levels of testing in the application testing phase of QA. UAT stands for User Acceptance Testing and SIT stands for System Integration Testing. Here we compare UAT vs. SIT against one another.

UAT: User Acceptance Testing Best Practices

User Acceptance Testing is the final stage of testing before the system is accepted by the operational user. End users perform UAT based on the user requirements specifications to confirm whether an application is meeting requirements.

Types of UAT Testing:

There are two major types of UAT Testing: Alpha Testing and Beta Testing.

1. Alpha Testing: Alpha testing is performed at the developer’s site by the customer. This type of UAT testing is performed under a developer’s control. Alpha Testing is performed once the system testing is completed.
2. Beta Testing: Beta testing is performed at one or more customer’s sites by the end-user of the software. For the beta testing of an application, it is given to a trusted customer. Here this type of UAT testing is not under the developer’s control. Beta testing is performed only after alpha testing is done. 

SIT: SIT Testing Best Practices

SIT Testing is performed to confirm whether the modules tested individually can work together to deliver the required functionality. Modules tested individually may work fine, but when they are integrated together some issues may occur. SIT testing is performed to test the dependency between modules through the transfer of data from one module to another.

System integration starts at the module level where units are integrated together forming to form a subsystem and eventually a system.

Types of SIT:

There are two major approaches to System Integration Testing: the top-down integration approach and the bottom-up integration approach.

1. Top-down Integration Approach: Here modules are integrated by moving downwards in a hierarchy, where the main module is at the top. In a top-down approach if lower modules are not ready a dummy module called a stub is used for testing. A stub acts as the module during the test. Stubs have the minimum functionality required to be used while testing the ‘above’ module.
2. Bottom-up Integration Approach: Here modules are combined and started to test at a very low level. If the top-level modules are not ready then drivers are used for testing. A driver is a program specially used for testing.

Comparison between UAT vs. SIT:

User acceptance (UAT) testing best practices and systems integrated (SIT) testing best practices are both critical skills for any quality assurance team. At tCognition we pride ourselves on our QA team.