Role of Beta Testing Companies in SDLC

Role of Beta Testing Companies in SDLC

Beta testing phase follows alpha testing phase; it is the second stage of testing in software development life cycle. Beta version of an application or a program contains all the main features, i.e. full functionality is incorporated in it. The goal of beta testing companies is to assess features of the software, to ensure its stable work from the end-user perspective. Accordingly, beta versions are tested by people who know how to use a program of the kind or previous version of this program. As usual, the organizations already have a set of people to collaborate with – the people who run the tests when needed.

And, at last, it can be declared that open beta testing (OBT) will be running when everyone can participate in the process. In order to have the possibility to conduct beta testing, it is enough for the volunteers to place a request on the company’s site and fill up a form there.

Before being officially released a beta version of the software application is subjected to internal full test cycle, and, in the majority of cases, after this it becomes possible to judge the level the program’s stability.  

Mobile testing companies provide end-to-end testing services to ensure that mobile devices or mobile sites deliver the best user experience and that they work flawlessly across the world in all possible languages. Mobile testers get to beta test the applications on real people, using the programs consistently for a certain period of time to gather feedback on them from the beta testers.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to foresee what defect may be identified during beta testing phase therefore a beta tester use a beta version at his/her own risk.

6 advantages of being a beta tester:

• becomes familiar with the product among the first;
• makes a significant contribution to improvement of the quality of the application under test;
• points out any relevant issues and help to enhance the product;
• gets friendly, fast and free technical support;
• interacts directly with the developers of the product;
• active beta testers get awarded with free versions of the product.

When performing beta testing, a tester should:

• download and install a necessary software version;
• spend some time on learning and testing the product;
• create reports of all possible bugs and submit them to the company that developers the product;
• provide information on the product’s compatibility with configuration of testing equipment.

Independent software testing companies periodically look for beta testers to verify services and applications. Beta testing is the most efficient and cost-effective technique for testing software products globally.