Acceptance testing of software products for cloud-based on-line delivery

Software products intended for on-line delivery by distributors serving an open community of subscribers are developed in a specific life-cycle model in which the roles of major stakeholders are strongly separated, unlike in any other software development model known in software engineering. Its specificity underlines the fact that a distributor of the final product, responsible for its acceptance for publication and delivery to subscribers (users), is not a member of the product development team. Similarly, users of the product, who normally act as clients in other software development models cannot participate in the process until it is published by a distributor. In the paper a test methodology defined by the industrial IEEE standard is analyzed in the context of that online delivery software development model and basic recommendation for the NIWA distribution platform to be operated by the CI-TASK Academic Computer Centre at the Gdansk University of Technology are formulated.