IEC 61850 is the standard widely used for power utility communication utilizing GOOSE for real time communication as well as Client/Server for SCADA communication. Factory acceptance testing (FAT) and site acceptance testing are described in the standard in general manner. This paper describes practical experiences when putting into operation substations according to IEC 61850. Since functional testing is described in the standard briefly only the paper focusses on that part of testing. Starting with different use cases requirements for tools are defined. Testing interlocking and intertripping schemes with real time communication (GOOSE) is analysed. To do so special requirements for test sets as well as analysing software have to be discussed and compared with practical experiences. Putting into operation supervision, automation and control differs. Since client-server communication describes point to point traffic new requirements for analysing devices are proposed. Analysing the communication as described in IEC 61850-8 will be extended with presentation of the abstract communication services and its interface (ACSI) as described in part 7 of the standard series. Requirements for switches (mirroring) or other approaches (TAP) will be discussed. To substantiate the practical nature of this paper proposals for commissioning and tools for initial operation will be proposed. To distinguish between real and simulated signals the standard in the second edition provides a huge amount of possibilities. This paper provides a proposal how to combine the possibilities in testing tools. An outlook describing communication with Sampled Values as described in IEC 61850-9-2 and the combination with time synchronisation according to IEEE 1588 (PTP) is finalizing the paper.