Page - 98 - in The Future of Software Quality Assurance

98 M.Mitev Table 4 Main differences between alpha and beta testing Alpha test Beta test What they do Improve the quality of the product and ensure beta readiness Improve the qualityof the product, integrate customer inputon thecomplete product and ensure release When they happen Toward the end of a development process when the product is in a near fully usable state Just prior to launch, sometimes ending within weeks or even days offinal release How long they last Usually very long and see many iterations. It’s not uncommon for alpha to last3–5× the length ofbeta Usually only a few weeks (sometimes up to a couple ofmonths) with few major iterations Who cares about it Almostexclusively quality/engineering (bugs, bugs, bugs) Product marketing, support, docs, qualityand engineering—the entire product team Who participates/tests Test Engineers, employees and sometimes “friends and family”; focuses on testing that would emulate 80% of the customers Tested in the“real world” with“real customers” and the feedback can cover every element of the product What testers should expect Plenty ofbugs, crashes, missing docs and features Some bugs, fewer crashes, most docs, complete features How they’re addressed About methodology, efficiency and regiment. Agood alpha test sets well-defined benchmarks and measures a product against those benchmarks About chaos, reality and imagination.Beta tests explore the limitsofa product by allowing customers toexplore every element of the product in theirnative environment When it’sover You have a decent idea ofhow a product performs and whether itmeets the design criteria and it’s “beta ready” You have a good idea ofwhat your customer thinksabout the product and what she/he is likely toexperience when they purchase it Whathappens next Beta test Release 3.1 PrimaryApproach toAcceptance Testing Well, theprimaryapproachtoacceptancetestingisabigdifferentandthatcaneasily be seen on the pie chart. It is usually done by the QA team or the BA team when it isnot skippedor shortened.Quiteoften, it isnotveryclearhowtoset theboundary or the levelof theuser involvement in it.So,what thepiechart showsus isgiven in Fig.1.