🅰️Alpha Testing

Alpha Testing is a type of software testing performed to identify bugs before releasing the software product to the real users or public. It is a type of acceptance testing. The main objective of alpha testing is to refine the software product by finding and fixing the bugs that were not discovered through previous tests.

This testing is referred to as an alpha testing only because it is done early on, near the end of the development of the software, and before Beta Testing.

Who is involved in Alpha testing?

Alpha testing has two phases:

1. The first phase of testing is done by in-house developers. They either use hardware-assisted debuggers or debugger software. The aim to catch bugs quickly. Usually while alpha testing, a tester will come across to plenty of bugs, crashes, missing features, and docs.

2. While the second phase of alpha testing is done by software QA staff, for additional testing in an environment. It involves both black box and White Box Testing.

So, alpha testing can be envisioned as an online application that is not completely ready for the usage but has been opened up to get some initial feedback.

Advantages:

• Gets feedback on usability early in the development cycle when changes are easier to implement. 👍

• Allows developers to fix bugs and issues before beta testing or public release. 🐛➡️🔧

• Tests basic functionality and workflow. ✅

• Can be done quickly without a large sample size. 🏃‍♀️⏱

• Provides first impression of user experience. 👀

Disadvantages:

• Limited feature set available for testing. 🤏

• Small user group may not reveal all issues. 👥

• Feedback may not reflect real-world usage. 🌎

• Users know it's an alpha so may be more forgiving. 😇

• Priority is finding bugs vs. user experience testing. 🐞🔍

Overall, alpha testing offers an early assessment to shape the app before wider testing. But the small scale means results should be considered preliminary. 🧪