What does ATP stand for?
| Full form | Acceptance Test Plan |
|---|---|
| Category | Science & engineering |
| Type | Initialism |
The initialism ATP stands for Acceptance Test Plan in NASA’s SCaN terminology. It identifies a planning document for acceptance testing, distinct from a procedure or test result.
NASA’s software engineering handbook discusses acceptance test plans and procedures as documents that need to stay consistent with software requirements. A plan’s stated scope and criteria need to be read with the applicable revision. A procedure describes execution details, while a result record describes what actually occurred; the presence of a plan is not proof of a passed test.
Meaning in context
- Acceptance Test
- The testing purpose addressed by the plan.
- Plan
- The planned scope and criteria, not evidence that the check has already run.
Practical examples
Make the criterion observable
- Before
Test the search feature and accept it if it looks good.
- After
For an illustrative exact-match search, the stated criterion is that searching the test acronym displays its expected test entry.
The revised example makes the expected behavior observable. It is a teaching example, not a prescribed NASA test method or a claim that our real search was tested here.
Follow a changed requirement
- Before
The search requirement changed, but the old plan automatically covers it.
- After
Review the plan and procedures against the changed requirement and record the applicable revisions.
A plan title cannot establish coverage of a new requirement. The example follows the handbook’s document-consistency principle without importing unrelated flight-project requirements.
Original illustrative examples, not quotations or reports of actual events.
Use ATP with clarity
What is missing when an acceptance test plan names a feature but states no observable acceptance criterion?
See all guidance
Read the scope
Identify the requirement and behavior the plan covers.
Which requirement does this acceptance test address?
Read the criterion
Look for an observable expected result.
Which observation would satisfy the stated criterion?
Read the revision
Keep requirements, plan and procedures consistent in their applicable versions.
Does this plan revision cover the changed requirement?
This creates a planning note. It executes no test and supplies no evidence of acceptance or compliance with NASA requirements.
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By AcronymIndex Editorial Team · Editorial policy