Why beta test

Beta testing also facilitates an understanding of the scalability of a product and how reliable it will be in a real-world environment. What is more, this phase of product development creates another opportunity to harvest feedback from individuals and groups outside the business.

This is especially attractive to the product manager. Beta testing too can be used to validate hypotheses or inferences about the product and certify that it meets the requirements and expectations of the consumer. This phase of the development of the product can be used to fine-tune the planning for its release.

Communicating, advertising, broadcasting, positioning, and general marketing of the product might be given new consideration based on the performance of the product in a beta test or the feedback garnered there. It may even prove beneficial to exclusively invite influential people within the industry to testing since positive reviews from them can generate buzz and excitement around the product. Beta testing has come into its own over time, especially with the appearance of the internet and its shifting to the forefront of modern life.

It is becoming increasingly common to leave a product in its beta phase so that it can be continually updated and adapted with new features. The internet has streamlined the delivery of software: it is easier and cheaper to get a product to the consumer. Technology exponentially increases in pace so that businesses in the software arena, in particular, must remain highly dynamic, which is why beta tests are so essential.

To remain competitive they must endlessly renew and revitalize their product line. This also means scurrying to meet competition in the market when a new product enters it, which can be often. Beta Test. What is a beta test? Aspects of beta testing. Why use beta tests? Get our Mastering Prioritization eBook Learn how to prioritize by making it a simple process, to build products that stand out.

General FAQ What is the purpose of a beta test? This is a valuable opportunity to identify any mistakes or bugs, which could have a negative impact on the user experience. How long should beta testing last? Increasing complexities in development and delivery tools are now affecting the entire testing endeavor—not only in the beta phase. Good test data and test environments continue to be elusive for many QA teams, and this is even more challenging in agile development.

In software testing, the demand for ubiquity, mobility, intelligence and automation continues to increase. Many experts predict that automated, analytics solutions will eventually enable more efficient and accurate QA teams. However, intelligent beta testing solutions are largely nonexistent. If a beta testing tool is to provide the end-user with the best available information to form a decision about a product, the tool should validate product functionality and usage—while also supporting user confidence.

That is the goal. But the reality is this: there is no available dashboard or single-window solution no available extensions or widgets that truly empower users in beta. This means that these tools are unusable by the end user. Also, skilled test engineers are necessary to manage these tools. Too much information would surely be a major distraction for users as they would struggle to get a meaningful, unified view of product context. To address these challenges, we look forward to the day in which intelligent, highly-connectable, unified-view beta-testing solutions that end users can readily understand without assistance from any geeks!

Whether you are launching a website, a new app, or a new mobile device, it is important that you have independent users test the product thoroughly prior to shipment. Beta testing serves multiple purposes, though all of those initiatives lead to one thing — improving customer experience. Beta testing provides insights into product functionality and also helps you better understand user experience.

Going beyond lab performance tests, beta testing reveals whether or not the same level of performance is achievable in actual user environments. Many products need to perform well in hundreds of various environments and many different usage contexts.

By delivering pre-release software to actual users that stand well outside the insular community of developers, beta testing serves to identify elements of functionality that are all too easily overlooked in the lab. In addition, your team benefits from feedback that can be very useful for improving future product versions—or even spawn ideas for entirely new products. Ideally, a user-empowering beta testing solution that addresses many of the challenges would exhibit these characteristics:.

At Functionize, we continue to pursue this holy grail. It is the final test before shipping a product to the customers. Direct feedback from customers is a major advantage of Beta Testing. Beta version of the software is released to a limited number of end-users of the product to obtain feedback on the product quality. Beta testing reduces product failure risks and provides increased quality of the product through customer validation.

Traditional Beta testing: Product is distributed to the target market, and related data is gathered in all aspects. This data can be used for Product improvement. Public Beta Testing: Product is publicly released to the outside world via online channels and data can be gathered from anyone. Based on feedback, product improvements can be done.

Focused Beta: Product is released to the market for gathering feedback on specific features of the program.

For example, important functionality of the software. Post-release Beta: Product is released to the market and data is gathered to make improvements for the future release of the product. The Phases of Testing for a product company typically varies from a service-oriented organization. Following is the testing phase adopted by product firms.

Pre-Alpha :- Software is a prototype. UI is complete. But not all features are completed. At this stage, software is not published. Beta : Software is stable and is released to a limited user base.

The goal is to get customer feedback on the product and make changes in software accordingly.