Context: Acceptance testing is an important activity that verifies the conformance of a system to its acceptance criteria. It aims to provide a detailed communication of domain knowledge and is used to evaluate whether the customer requirements are met. Existing literature lacks empirical evidence for acceptance testing. Especially in the context of industry practice, it is not in the authors' consideration, except for a few studies, where the authors have investigated the state of practice in a specific domain. Objective: This study aims to recognize the state of research and practice of acceptance testing in Agile Software Development and investigate the similarities and differences in both perspectives. The study contributes to identify the industry-academia gap in the context of acceptance testing. Research Method: To identify the acceptance testing practices and challenges from research, I have conducted a literature review. For the industry perspective on acceptance testing practices and challenges, I have conducted an interview-based survey of the practitioners working in the Agile Software Development environment. I followed the snowball search strategy to search the primary studies, whereas to select the respondents, I used the convenience and snowball sampling method. For data analysis, I followed the approach of thematic synthesis. Results: The results of this thesis are the outcome of a literature review of 20 selected studies and an interview-based survey with 12 practitioners representing10 companies. I identified acceptance testing practices and challenges from research and industry. In the research, the most recommended form of acceptance testing is acceptance test-driven development (ATDD), and the majority of the studies are referring to the use of FIT for acceptance testing. Customer involvement in different phases of acceptance testing is recommended in research. From the interviews, I come across that acceptance testing is manual at large in the industry, and the most challenging aspect is the customer’s involvement. Conclusions: From the findings of this thesis, it is concluded that there is a gap between the research and industry perspective of acceptance testing practices. Currently, acceptance testing in the industry is mostly manual, the research is not focusing on this aspect of acceptance testing. Despite the differences, there are some commonalities as well. Especially, most challenges of acceptance testing are similar in both perspectives. Researchers have to consider the commonalities, and they have to look at how they can minimize the acceptance testing challenges from the perspective of the industry.

Submitted by Johnny Rodrigues (johnnyrodrigues@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-08-23T15:26:25Z No. of bitstreams: 1 OSÓRIO LOPES ABATH NETO - DISSERTAÇÃO PPGCC 2007..pdf: 1322223 bytes, checksum: 3e204692131c02935d262bb71e470eaa (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-23T15:26:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 OSÓRIO LOPES ABATH NETO - DISSERTAÇÃO PPGCC 2007..pdf: 1322223 bytes, checksum: 3e204692131c02935d262bb71e470eaa (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-08-30 / O Desenvolvimento de Software Guiado por Testes de Aceitação – Acceptance Test Driven Development (ATDD) – é uma metodologia de desenvolvimento de software ágil que apresenta vários benefícios, que incluem confiança no software em desenvolvimento, sincronização automática entre análise e código, redução de problemas de comunicação no projeto e foco dos desenvolvedores nos requisitos do cliente. É particularmente adequada para projetos terceirizados e para ensinar desenvolvimento de software a estudantes de Ciência da Computação. Entretanto, como é uma metodologia nova, ainda falta para ela uma cobertura adequada na literatura. Além disso, a área de padrões para ATDD ainda precisa ser iniciada. Esta dissertação envolve a realização de um estudo investigativo sobre melhores práticas e padrões para ATDD, a definição de como aplicar a metodologia sob o ponto de vista de um processo de desenvolvimento de software, e um resumo da experiência adquirida com ensino de desenvolvimento de software utilizando ATDD. Como resultado da realização destas atividades, foi escrito um texto introdutório sobre ATDD, que esperamos sirva não só para que novatos aproveitem o máximo da metodologia, mas também para divulgar seus benefícios. Os exemplos do texto usam EasyAccept, uma ferramenta de testes de aceitação com scripts, como meio de exposição da metodologia. / Acceptance Test Driven Development (ATDD) is an emerging agile methodology to develop software which has a number of advantages, including confidence in the software being developed, automated synchronization between analysis and code, reduction of project communication problems and developer focus on client requirements. It is particularly suited to outsource projects and to teach software development to Computer Science students. As it is new, however, there is still a lack of proper coverage of this methodology in the literature. Furthermore, the area of patterns for ATDD still needs to be started. This dissertation involves performing an investigative study on best practices and patterns for ATDD, defining the application of the methodology with a software development process point of view and summarizing gathered experience with ATDD as a means of teaching software development. The result of these activities was an introductory text on ATDD, which we hope will serve not only to help newcomers yield more from the methodology, but also to divulge its benefits. The examples in the text use EasyAccept, a scripted acceptance testing tool, as a means of exposing the methodology.