Operational Acceptance Testing (OAT) is used to conduct operational readiness (pre-release) of a product, service or system as part of a
quality management system. OAT is a common type of non-functional
software testing, used mainly in
software development and
software maintenance projects. This type of testing focuses on the operational readiness of the system to be supported, and/or to become part of the production environment. Hence, it is also known as
operational readiness testing (ORT) or
operations readiness and assurance (OR&A) testing.
Functional testing within OAT is limited to those tests which are required to verify the
non-functional aspects of the system.