Who should perform user acceptance testing?
Unclear business verification ownershipUse representative business users and an accountable acceptance owner, supported by the delivery team. Technical testers can help, but they cannot alone decide whether the business outcome is fit for use.
What to do now
- Identify representative user roles
- Agree business scenarios and criteria
- Prepare access and support
- Record evidence for the acceptance authority
When to escalate
Escalate when
No business owner can confirm the required outcome.
Who decides
The acceptance authority and relevant quality owner
Example
Finance users test realistic invoice scenarios while technical staff support diagnosis of failures.
Mistake to avoid
Asking developers to approve their own interpretation of user needs.
Prevent a repeat
Check that closure evidence proves the agreed outcome instead of relying only on a completion percentage.
Suggested ApprovedFlow setup
- Tasks
- Documents
- Approvals
Attach acceptance criteria and test evidence to the deliverable or task, then record the authorized review decision. See the platform
Related cases
- The customer signs off a demo but rejects real use. Why?Demonstration-acceptance gap
- How should we handle conditional acceptance?Uncontrolled acceptance conditions
- How do we define supplier acceptance criteria before signing?Unclear commercial verification
- Incidents bounce between vendor, IT, and business teams. How do we stop that?Unclear incident coordination