Definition
Acceptance testing, called recette in French, is the verification of software by the people who will use it, before it goes into production. It takes place on a test environment, with real data and real cases, following the written scope: every function is tried, every gap is noted, fixed, then checked again.
It ends with a formal sign-off, often called an acceptance report, which authorises the go-live and triggers the next stage of the project.
Why it matters to a business owner
For a business owner, acceptance testing is the moment you see what you are buying. A project without structured acceptance ends in a dispute over what was or was not planned; acceptance lot by lot avoids discovering problems on go-live day.
It also protects adoption: teams that have tested the tool on their own files look forward to it instead of putting up with it.
What Stratedge Consulting does
A Program delivers every week, tracked in your client space, which allows continuous acceptance rather than a single sign-off at the end. Clickable mockups are tested with your teams before the code, AI agents are built and tested on your real cases, and data migration is checked with you before the old tool is switched off. See the Method.
Go-live is supported: migration, training, documentation and hands-on presence for the first few days, then the Care subscription for fixes.
Common mistakes
Testing with demo data. The real problems show up on awkward files, duplicates and the edge cases of the trade.
Leaving acceptance to the provider or to a single person. The people who will use the tool every day must test it, with one owner who settles whether a gap is a defect or a new request.