Establish and Document the Application's Testing Evidence for Systems Integration Testing (SIT) and User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

This chapter explains how to establish and document the evidence that each Release of an Application has been tested in Systems Integration Testing (SIT) and User Acceptance Testing (UAT).

Why Testing Evidence Matters

Test cases describe what should be tested; testing evidence shows what was actually tested, with what result. Without evidence, a Release’s readiness rests on assurances rather than facts, Defects found in testing may be forgotten, and auditors and regulators cannot be shown that the Application was verified.

Establish Testing Evidence

For each Release, and for both SIT and UAT:

• Record which test suites and test cases were executed, in which Instance, with which version of the Application, and when.

• Record the result of each test case against its expected outcome.

• Record each Defect found, its severity, and its resolution or deferral.

• Record the exit criteria for the phase, and whether they were met.

• Record the sign-off: for SIT, typically by Quality Assurance and the IT Application Owner; for UAT, by the Business Application Owner or the business representatives they designate.

Document and Share the Testing Evidence

Store testing evidence in the Test section of the Application Documentation, or in the enterprise’s test management capability with links from the documentation, and retain it for audit. Present a summary of the evidence at the Release’s Production Deployment gate.

Best Practice: Establish and Document the Application’s SIT and UAT Testing Evidence

It is a best practice to both establish and document the solution for proving that a Release was tested: record, for SIT and UAT, which tests ran where and when, their results, the Defects found and how they were resolved, whether exit criteria were met, and who signed off.

Benefits: Testing evidence turns “it was tested” into a verifiable fact that Release governance, auditors, and future teams can rely on. Recording the business sign-off for UAT also ensures that the people who depend on the Application have explicitly accepted it, rather than discovering problems after Deployment.

Connections to Related IF4IT Practices and Inventories

The Systems Development Lifecycle (SDLC) Best Practices describes the Systems Integration Testing (SIT) and User Acceptance Testing (UAT) phases and their exit criteria. The GxP Compliance Framework addresses testing evidence requirements in regulated environments.