User Acceptance Testing (UAT) is a phase in the software development life cycle where the intended users of a system participate in validating that the solution meets their needs.
User Acceptance Testing is conducted to assess if the system can support day-to-day business and user scenarios and to ensure the system is sufficient and correct for business usage.
1. BAs understand the functionality the system is supposed to deliver and as such, have the knowledge needed to validate the system (confirm whether the solution meets business needs or not). The fact that a system has been built to specification does not make it automatically acceptable.
2. Getting involved in UAT presents an opportunity for the BA to confirm the correctness of previously elicited requirements and improve on future projects.
3. Being part of the UAT session will help the Business Analyst understand the rationale for any proposed change, suggest the most appropriate way to meet the business need.
4. When BAs who have a first-hand knowledge of system functionalities are involved in UAT, they are able to support training efforts prior to UAT and answer users' questions during test sessions.
5. As part of solution validation, the BA may be brought in to support the team in assessing the severity of defects, their impact on the business, which defects must be resolved before go-live and what can be done to mitigate the risks of the defects that cannot be resolved.
6. Business Analysts are involved in determining the set of requirements the solution must meet to be considered acceptable. In an ideal world, users are expected to write their own test scripts but in reality, BAs usually have to support this task or write the test scripts themselves.