A system acceptance test verifies the agreed rules, source records, owners, permissions, exceptions, recovery, and completion evidence. Passing a successful transfer once is not sufficient.
Test normal work and incorrect inputs
Run a representative request from trigger to completion and compare the information in each tool. Check identifiers, required fields, timestamps, status changes, and ownership.
Then test missing information, invalid values, duplicate submissions, repeated transfers, changed source records, and rejected approvals. Confirm that the system does not silently treat incomplete work as complete.
Test failure and recovery
Make the test plan explain what happens when a dependency is unavailable or the expected person cannot respond. Confirm that failures are visible and reach the agreed owner.
Use appropriate test environments and approved sample records. Do not deliberately disrupt production or expose private information to prove a point. Confirm the manual fallback and the way recovery avoids duplicate work.
Test adoption and acceptance
Ask the responsible team to complete the workflow using the handover instructions. Confirm access, current procedures, exception handling, and the owner after launch.
Record each case, the expected result, actual result, evidence, and acceptance decision. Outstanding defects and limitations remain explicit. Compare the operating measure with the starting baseline after the agreed observation period.
- Normal work reaches a verified completion condition.
- Missing and duplicate records are handled as agreed.
- Approvals and permissions remain intact.
- Failures reach a responsible owner.
- Recovery and the manual fallback have been reviewed.
- The team can use the instructions.
- Acceptance and unresolved limitations are recorded.