What Are the Testing Stages on uatgpt.com, from Brief to Release?

uatgpt.com organizes acceptance testing into six stages: Brief, Paths, Coverage, Evidence, Defects, and Release. Each stage asks one question and produces one local draft — a criterion, a scenario path, a trace link, an observation note, a reproduction step, or a decision gate. The stages are meant to be worked in order, so that a requirement becomes a testable criterion, a failure becomes a reproducible path, and a release decision rests on observed results rather than assumptions. The site frames this as "State the test. See the outcome." and keeps drafts on the page rather than publishing them.

The six stages and what each one asks

The site's own navigation labels these as "Use the check" / "Local draft" for each stage, and lists reference material alongside them: ISTQB acceptance testing, Cucumber Gherkin, and Playwright for visible behaviour.

How the stages connect

Brief: from request to criterion

The Brief stage uses a criterion frame with five parts: the person or role, the task they need to finish, the starting state, the action or event, and the visible outcome. A feature request becomes a useful criterion only when all five connect. The site is explicit about the limit of this frame: it "exposes missing parts; it does not decide whether a product meets them." So the Brief stage produces a well-formed question, not a verdict.

Paths: making the outcome observable

The Paths stage writes scenario paths with observable outcomes. The site's stated principle is that a visible result is stronger than a subjective one — "'Intuitive' cannot be observed in the same way as a named message or changed state." A path is only complete when the starting condition and the visible outcome are both named.

Coverage: tying criteria to tests

Coverage finds gaps between criteria and tests using trace links. This is where you check which acceptance statement a given test is actually checking, so that no criterion sits untested and no test floats free of a requirement.

Evidence: keeping observation beside expectation

Evidence keeps observed results next to the expectation in observation notes. The distinction the site draws is that "a drafted test, an observed result and a release decision are different events" — each must stay tied to the product you actually checked. This is the stage that prevents an invented test outcome from standing in for a real one.

Defects: making a failure reproducible

Defects records which path and build were checked and turns a failed path into reproduction steps. Because the path and build are named, someone else can re-run the same check rather than guess at it.

Release: reviewing evidence before deciding

Release sets decision gates: evidence is reviewed before a release decision is made. The gate depends on the earlier stages — you can only review observations that were recorded, against criteria that were defined, on paths that were specified.

A worked example of the chain

Suppose a request says users should get clear feedback when a form submission fails.

• Brief names the actor (a signed-in user), the starting state (a form with a missing required field), the action (submit), and the visible outcome (a named error message identifying the field). "Clear feedback" alone fails the frame.
• Paths writes the scenario: given the missing field, when submitted, then the named message appears.
• Coverage links this scenario to the acceptance statement it checks.
• Evidence records what was actually seen on the build tested, beside the expectation.
• Defects, if the message did not appear, captures the path and build plus steps to reproduce.
• Release reviews that evidence before the decision.

Each stage adds one artifact and one check; none of them substitutes for the others.

Where to start

The site offers a choice of starting point — Brief, Paths, Coverage, Evidence, Defects, or Release — so you can enter at the stage that matches your current gap. If a requirement is still vague, start at Brief. If tests exist but you cannot say which criterion they cover, start at Coverage. If a failure has been reported but not reproduced, start at Defects.