hardScenarioCase StudyMidSeniorLead
How do you plan and run UAT, and what happens if the business signs off something that does not meet the original need?
8 min readUpdated 2026-08-15
Answer
Short answer
Plan UAT backwards from the business outcome rather than forwards from the specification, and have real users run real work on realistic data.If sign-off lands on the wrong thing, measure the gap against the original objective and raise it as a change with its own business case.
Mention acceptance criteria where it changes the risk, the owner, or the next check. A useful acceptance criteria point should make the answer more testable, not merely longer. Tie acceptance criteria back to the scenario so the interviewer can see why it matters here.
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Likely follow-ups
- What are your entry criteria for starting UAT, and would you start without them?
- The only available tester is a business analyst who has been on the project since February. What is the problem with that?
- How do you decide whether a UAT finding is a defect or a change request, and who arbitrates?
- Six weeks after go-live, adoption is a fifth of what the business case assumed. How do you investigate?
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