Alpha Testing vs Beta Testing
Alpha and Beta testing are critical for any software product. Most of the software issues have been found in Alpha and Beta testing. Generally, software professionals get confused about these Alpha and Beta terms. In this article, we cover alpha and beta testing separately and then see what the differences between them are.
Table of Contents
Alpha Testing vs Beta Testing
What is Alpha Testing?
- Alpha testing is the first phase of testing where the developer and quality team tests the software product against the requirements given by the client.
- Alpha Testing freezes the requirements and does not allow any new addition of a feature after the completion of testing.
- Alpha testing started just after the completion of the development of the software.
- Includes both black and white box methodology to find bugs/issues in the software product.
- Conducted by the employees within the organization.
- Generally, the product-developing organization uses quality management tools for tracking bugs/issues.
- Generally, Alpha testing duration is 4-8 weeks depending on the complexity of the software.
What is Beta Testing?
- Beta testing is considered the second phase of testing, where real users test the software in a real environment.
- Beta Testing considers external user acceptance testing.
- After beta testing, the product is released to limited end users as a beta version for a limited time. Windows 10 also released its beta version for the suggestion of end-users.
- End users give feedback based on their experience of usage of the software.
- Generally, the company gathers all feedback from end-users and improves the software based on feedback and user experience in future releases.
- Beta testing duration is small in comparison with alpha testing. It may range from a few days to a few weeks.
Differences between Alpha and Beta Testing
| Alpha Testing | Beta Testing |
|---|---|
| Alpha testing consider as the first phase of formal acceptance testing of a software product. | Beta testing consider the second phase of formal acceptance testing of the software product and it started after fixing all issues of alpha testing. |
| Alpha testing conducted by both developers and testers. | Beta testing conducted by testers and real users. |
| Alpha testing just started after completion of software development. | Beta testing started just before the release of the software product to end users and public. |
| Alpha testing generally performed at developer’s place. | Beta testing generally performed at client’s place. |
| Alpha testing uncovers many critical issues and must be fixed. | Beta testing not expecting any critical issue in this phase. |
| Alpha testing ensures the reliability of software as software is tested rigorously by testers. | Beta testing ensures client satisfaction as software is tested by real users. |
| Alpha testing involves both white and black box methodology for testing the product. | Beta testing involves only black box methodology for testing the product. |
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