Discussing the key differences between beta testing vs alpha testing is crucial to creating a product release roadmap that delivers. When they’re understood and executed properly, these very distinct testing phases will allow you to carry that heavy torch you’ve been holding since the project’s inception all the way to a glorious finish line, where customers are happy, KPIs skyrocket and careers elevate.
This subject is not just for developers, product managers and QAs! Alpha testing and beta testing occur much later in the product development process, after the fundamental structure of the product has already been designed — BUT, for your official product launch to be truly successful, a strong human-centered design (HCD) approach absolutely has to be sustained in these late phases. After all, your main goal here is to assess the usability of the “finished” application (along with functionality, security, reliability, etc.).
This blog will help you understand exactly what alpha and beta testing are, how they compare, and how to set teams up for success as they work through both processes.
In this blog, we’ll cover:
- Key Similarities and Differences Between Alpha vs Beta Testing
- When Software Testing Goes Wrong
- 4 Golden Rules for Software Testing in Both Phases
Scroll down to get the details!
What is alpha testing vs beta testing?
Alpha testing and beta testing are both processes in software testing that assess the usability of a product before its official launch, but alpha testing focuses on internal quality control, while beta testing focuses on how customers respond to a product in a real-life setting. An app or feature will typically go through alpha testing before being released to beta, but these phases aren’t linear — both typically involve cycles of feedback and iteration in a software release cycle.
Alpha and Beta Testing Similarities
Alpha testing and beta testing similarities include practices of iteration, involvement of developers, designers and researchers alike, and the overall goal of creating the best possible launched product.
Alpha and beta testing are similar in that they:
- Occur in the late stages of product development — Both alpha and beta testing involve validating the design and code of a product that’s getting closer to market launch. If everyone’s done their job right, you won’t be making large, sweeping, game-changing discoveries about user needs and challenges at this late stage, but when it comes to UX and UI, the smaller details and finishing touches can go a long way in improving user experience and market performance.
- Should include designers and researchers — UX and UI designers, UX researchers and service designers should be as involved as developers in alpha and beta launches in order to assess experience quality, facilitate thorough and unbiased testing, and analyze user feedback.
- Assess usability and functionality—In alpha and beta, the product undergoes rigorous tests to ensure that the experience is intuitive, efficient and free of critical bugs, broken code, issues with unclear navigation, etc.
- Involve forms of “acceptance testing” — Developers will use traditional acceptance testing methods to assess if a product is working the way it’s supposed to based on the design, and developers or UX practitioners can work with the project team to facilitate user acceptance testing, i.e. assess if a product is meeting targeted user needs.
- Involve iteration based on feedback — Each bug fix or addressed usability issue should go through the processes of internal quality assurance and usability testing before being released to users. (This can be done in batch updates to optimize efficiency.)
- Aim to de-risk the product launch — Both phases of testing are performed with the aim of getting feedback that will improve the customer/user’s experience and decrease the chances of a failed launch to the wider market.
(Side note: The ROI of your testing and research is highest when done in the discovery phase of your product design project. Learn more about concepts like this and hear about our latest UX webinars by following Outwitly.)
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Alpha and Beta Testing Differences
Alpha testing and beta testing differences include the testers involved, the environment where testing happens, as well as approval benchmarks, designer and researcher activities, and duration.
- Testers — In alpha testing, interactions with the product are conducted by quality assurance (QA) testers on the internal team, while beta testing involves real end-users interacting with the product. Beta testers will be real customers (usually power users/early adopters) or prospects who really care about the product and will give thorough feedback.
- Environment — Alpha testing is usually done in a “controlled environment” (an internal or hired team is rigorously testing a prescribed set of processes or functions), while beta testing is done in an “uncontrolled environment” (users interact with the app freely, sometimes in unpredictable ways).
- Approval benchmarks — Alpha testing is primarily for assessing the quality of the software against decided-on design and coding standards. (“Does the product function as we planned it to?”) Beta testing assesses whether or not the product satisfies the end-user’s needs in a way that’s intuitive, efficient, memorable and satisfying. (“Does it deliver a pleasant experience? How easy is it for users to accomplish basic tasks the first time they encounter the design? Did we make mistakes defining the basic tasks for first-time users?”) You can also see this resource for defining usability.
- Types of designer and researcher activities — During alpha testing, designers will often collaborate with the developers and QA team to review the product, ensure that the product is functioning as intended, and possibly suggest refinements to UI elements. During beta testing, team members (Hopefully research-savvy ones!) will analyze and report on user testing feedback, and they might recommend design iterations to address pain points and challenges.
- Duration — One testing phase (usually alpha) will typically gain the most focus, depending on what shape your product is in and what approaches you use in terms of iteration and risk mitigation. Alpha will last much longer if your app is in a very early or unstable phase, has complex features or is being developed incrementally. Beta testing might extend if the team needs to collect extensive feedback from a larger, more diverse group of users, or if critical issues are discovered.
Next, let’s look at some product management best practices for alpha testing and beta testing.
(Pssst! Speaking of best practices, want the latest human-centered design tips from our in-house UX and service design experts? Sign up for our newsletter!)
Software Testing Best Practices for Product Management
Whether you’re a product manager or a UX practitioner stepping into management responsibilities, best practices in managing software testing involve getting clear about priorities, maintaining seamless communication across all teams, and allocating resources strategically.
When does software testing go wrong?
Software testing goes wrong when your resources start to exceed your goals — you’ll run into trouble if unanticipated feedback and problems pull you out of scope… or if miscommunication angers your beta testers. Below are some common software testing pitfalls:
- Project timelines sliding too far: Dates might slide because of unexpected usability, security or reliability issues in beta, or because of a lack of prioritization between larger issues and smaller, less concerning issues in alpha. Ensure that you build in leeway time and communicate priorities with your team.
- Breakdowns in cross-functional communication: Product marketers, customer success managers or those who interact closely with your users are very helpful collaborators in rolling out new features and updates for testing… BUT, be thorough in communicating with them about testing and development progress. You don’t want your colleagues to set customer expectations high for an early release, right before a big batch of critical bugs are found!
- An overwhelming amount of negative feedback in beta: No matter how much careful testing you do internally, real-world product/user interactions can unearth design and coding flaws that wouldn’t otherwise be discovered. That being said, doing enough discovery-based user research before design starts can also do wonders to help you avoid critical issues that derail projects. (Hint: “Enough” research means that you’ve reached a data saturation point.) Another game-changer is having people on your team who can help you make sense of negative sentiments from users related to any process changes you’re releasing, and discern constructive feedback from the rest. People don’t usually like change, at least at first, and you might get customers who hate certain tasks no matter how much easier you make them.
- Limited adoption support and documentation: The data from your usability testing in beta will be inaccurate if you don’t properly recreate a “real-world” scenario for your beta testers— this includes providing them with the same resources that you plan to distribute in the live launch (e.g. a user guide, in-app manuals or chatboxes, error messages, a searchable website database, etc.). You can then use your beta testers’ questions to help you evaluate the gaps or unclear information in these resources and refine them going into the next phase.
4 Golden Rules for Software Testing in Alpha and Beta
Our golden rules for successful software testing in alpha and beta involve proper preparation, prioritization and risk awareness and mitigation.
- Understand what’s table stakes, what’s a differentiator and what’s a “nice-to-have.” Create a priority system. Ensure that all identified issues, no matter what type (bugs, issues with usability or security, etc.), are properly vetted and prioritized before implementation.
- Be wary of internal bias. Ensure that you or your team aren’t nixing a critical piece of feedback because of time pressure, reputation concerns or some other biasing factor. It’s better to face the truth and deal with a road bump now than wait until you’ve wasted resources and thoroughly frustrated your beta users.
- Don’t leave all of your testing until alpha and beta. Again, your best bet for reducing risk is doing early testing with real users in the early prototyping phases of product design.
- Don’t skimp on the beta phase! This phase is just as crucial as the alpha phase. Your customers/end-users are the ultimate litmus test — if they don’t want to use your product, then the ROI for the design project in question goes out the window. Ensure that you get robust feedback and that you address that feedback using sound analysis methods.
That’s it! We hope this post was a helpful exercise in comparing beta testing vs alpha testing, and the best ways to manage each. Thanks for reading.
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