I came across an individual seeking help on the topic of satisfying project stakeholders when it comes time for acceptance testing.  He wanted to know:

“What questions need to be put to stakeholders in order to get feedback on validation test performance?”

My answer follows:
I’m not entirely sure what answers you are looking for as the question seems quite broad. However, I have a few thoughts to share with you.

1. Be sure to understand what the stakeholders agree will constitute valid testing. In other words, what will you need to demonstrate for them to accept the product? This ought to generate conversation around what needs to be tested (features, function, process, etc.), how to test it (use case, user interaction, automated testing, environment, etc) and who participates (at a minimum I advocate the end product be tested by the IT/End User designer, and end-users responsible to use the product).

2. Quality testing can be a significant effort, and you may find yourself being pressed to push something into production that has not been fully vetted in a quality test environment (which is typically NOT a development environment). Proper testing at all stages – development, IT QA testing, end user acceptance testing – can be as large or larger an effort as the development itself. This is another expectation that needs to be set with your stakeholders.

3. If what you are concerned about is actual performance – i.e. response times/process times – step one ought to identify that test requirement. I advocate desired response, target response, maximum acceptable response.

4. Test environment – If you are not normally ever able to test in production (and typically you SHOULDN’T). But, as a second best, you would have a mirror production environment to validate performance tests. If application performance is that critical to a company then it needs to invest in a test environment that provides that capability as closely as possible. Short of that, you begin to turn your test results and move to production into a “crap shoot,” as others have said. So, this latter topic might also be something you put to your stakeholders. If you don’t already have the necessary environment – will they put up the money to improve the test environment?

I’ve included a couple of other links to some resources, articles, and ideas you might use. Hope this helps in some way!

Additional Material:

• Satisfying Test Stakeholders – a video series
• Who are the Stakeholders and How to Identify them for Testing – a Reading