Acceptance Test

An acceptance test confirms that a user story is complete by matching a scenario with a desired outcome. Acceptance tests should be specified in black and white or pass/fail terms only.

Acceptance testing is our answer to traceability. Tracing each and every requirement to a piece of code in the system takes an unnecessarily great deal of effort and documentation. If an acceptance test authored by the business owners is demonstrable, we can assume that there is code somewhere in the system implementing the feature. For more on this subject see Appendix A - Principles of Good Models and Documentation.