IMO Alpha/Beta test as soon as you can. Especially if this is a first or second application -- it provides invaluable feedback and starts generating a rapport with key people and userbase as well.
Send out mockups, same interaction movies etc to get discussion happening. I generally have long alpha/beta periods and both private and public betas (but that is from the wacky stuff I do -- mail plugins and I need to get as much testing as possible) If you are worried about testers losing interest then you perhaps need to be more captivating in your application design/features etc. and this is something to ask your testers about. You will also get testers who are better contributors to design and testers who are better contributors for filing bug reports. make as much use as you can of both of them. You will always get beta test attrition and people who are not the best testers but you will get a small % (10-20% maybe) who are gems/dedicated testers who make a significant contribution . On a side note: licenses for beta testers -- this is sometimes a quandary for people because it may mean deciding who are beta testers to contribute to the application and who are beta testers to get a free license. For the private beta group, I don't upfront advertise that being a tester= free license. and it rubs me the wrong way when a user solicits me for a license in exchange for beta testing. What I do is that I generally put out an email at release time to invite private beta testers to request a free registration if they feel that they have contributed to the beta cycle significantly -- this way I put the onus on them (not me) to make the determination that they have contributed. (and I give out license codes no questions asked to testers.) I have felt it has been a fair method. I find that by in large people are honest in their assessment of their contribution and while there are a few who may "freeload", I think they are negligible in number. Scott On 2009-12-30, at 11:59 PM, benzado wrote: > I've read a lot of advice for figuring out when you're ready to ship. A > related question on which I haven't heard much discussion, is when are you > ready to beta test? > > Should you wait until the product is nearly ready to ship, and task your > testers with stress-testing and looking for little things that you missed? > Or, should you distribute betas as soon as they are usable, to get feedback > on feature designs while it is still early enough to make big changes? > > My fears are, beta too soon, and you'll have a drawn out beta period in which > testers lose interest and wander away. Beta too late, and you might wind up > redesigning features because you didn't get feedback early enough. > > My fears may be unfounded and I suppose it doesn't have to be all or nothing > (small group for early betas, more people for late betas). What have you > learned in your experience? > > -- Ben > > > > > ------------------------------------ > > MacSB email guidelines: http://tinyurl.com/2g55d6 > Use MacSB-Talk for off topic messages: > http://groups.google.com/group/macsb-talk > Yahoo! Groups Links > > >
