Software Engineering Stack Exchange
Software Engineering Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [beta]

Beta phase in software development generally begins when the software is feature complete.

Taken from Wikipedia:

Beta (named after the second letter of the Greek alphabet) is the software development phase following alpha. It generally begins when the software is feature complete. Software in the beta phase will generally have many more bugs in it than completed software, as well as speed/performance issues. The focus of beta testing is reducing impacts to users, often incorporating usability testing. The process of delivering a beta version to the users is called beta release and this is typically the first time that the software is available outside of the organization that developed it.

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What are the best ways to get beta testers?

I have several projects coming up soon for public release, both commercial and open source. The projects are all downloadable, not web apps. I've worked on them alone and would like to get feedback during a beta period, but I don't currently have a…
VirtuosiMedia
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Should I be unit testing during prototyping/preparing for beta?

I am developing a web application for an industry that desperately needs it. Working with a consultant in the industry, I’ve rapidly developed a prototype in 2 months that we will be testing with a company they consult with. The software will be…
Chris Cirefice
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Is it safe to download VS11/.NET4.5 beta and still deploy to servers with .NET 4.0?

I've been wanting to try out VS2011 and .NET 4.5 beta, but the upgrade path is confusing at best. If I understand what I've read, the .NET 4.5 framework overwrites the .NET 4.0 libraries on your local machine, so libraries such as mscorlib.dll and…
Joe Enos
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Are API-changes expected in beta releases?

In an open source framework deprecated APIs were removed during the beta phase on the road to a new major version. Now users request to restore some deprecated APIs because it breaks compatibility. For me, beta stands for "Use at your own…
Chriss
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How to fit beta versions into a numeric versioning scheme?

Some tools force developers to adopt a version scheme of a certain form, form instance "major.minor.build.revision", where each field must be a number. How do I fit in betas in there? For instance, what version should I choose for version "2.0…
Joh
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Keeping test and release version numbers in sync

I'm currently beta-testing an iPhone app. Right now I have sent out the first beta-test for my users and I have labeled that release as 1.0 for my testers. Now since the testers have tested the app we have discovered some bugs that I have fixed and…
Peter Warbo
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Must all new features go through betatest?

Obviously, small usability fixes and bugfixes go directly into the stable product. What about small new features? Can you afford to just release them after internal testing, or do they have to be betatested by customers first? Situation: This is a…
LTR
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Finding and managing a group of testers

I am about to release a piece of software that will be licensed with the GPLv3 (the project itself is "for fun" and has no commercial dimension in it). The software is intended to help designing digital clocks and I know the core functionality works…
mac
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Is 'Aurora' a good release paradigm?

As we all know, there is 'alpha', and 'beta' release status. Mozilla Firefox, however, labels its releases differently: 'nightly', 'aurora', 'beta'. Is this an example to follow? Is aurora the new alpha? Does it create confusion, since it is…
michelemarcon
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Where can I get beta testers for a software library?

There are a few similar questions to this one already. But mine differs enough to warrant being asked separately. I've written an authentication ASP.Net library and I'm looking for beta testers. I've posted to the forums I frequent, but they are not…
Earlz
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Do/Should you consider GM releases as final?

I was wondering that, as a developer, you consider a GM release the final release and if you do it for serious development or if you stick to the stable version. With the iOS SDK, you're able to submit apps to Apple for submission to the App Store…
dbramhall
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Justifications for developing applications that work on beta versions of iOS?

I'm a participant of the Apple Developer Program and have been downloading and testing beta versions of iOS for a number of years now. When updating to a new iOS version I sometimes notice that a number of popular applications require updates via…
nopassport1
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Is it a bad idea to use a Beta warning on an onworking web application?

I'm currently working on an online app that includes many fairly new (for the company) features and they fall outside my expertise area by far, which means the edges may not be really well rounded yet. My boss wants it to be released in a somehow…
Sergi Juanola
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Why Beta versions have so many bugs?

When I worked in Microsoft on MSE antivirus, we had several stages of pre-release: Alpha, Beta, RC. The biggest difference between these stages were bug fixes. Each time we fixed more bugs, and usually updated some minor features. Apple works in…
Eugene
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Beta-testing app good practice

I have just released an iOS app for beta-testing with TestFlight. I'm wondering what is good practice during beta-testing? Should I halt development of the app during beta-testing? Should I continue developing but make a snapshot image of what…
Peter Warbo
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