Are you ready to be a beta tester?
December 22nd, 2007 | by Brook Durant |
Our friends at Mozilla are at it again having just release Firefox 3 beta 2 in time for the Christmas season and they need your help testing it! There are risks involved with beta testing anything, but with the proper care those risks can be greatly reduced.
- Preparations
- Beta releases of software is notorius for its bugginess. Sometimes. Othertimes it seems to run better than the final releases ever do. Point is that with beta software you’ll be getting mixed bag should you choose to try it out. Beta is generally reserved for those who know what they’re doing and are will to take the risks associated with it. If you do decide to try out the beta version of FF3 (or any other software) take the following precautions.
- Create a list of EVERYTHING on your computer using a program like Belarc
- Backup everything of value on your computer to removable media
- Make a clone of your current setup using something like Norton Ghost or the free utility, DriveImage XML
- Locate and install a program such as System Mechanic (free trial) which will keep track of changes you’ve made to your computer
- Make 100% certain you can reinstall from scratch just in case everything goes to hell and your image is corrupt
- Familiarize yourself with online support resources and how to use them. This has the potential save you a great deal of pain and aggravation.
- Last but not least TEST EVERYTHING OUT TO MAKE SURE IT WORKS. Make sure your clone image is valid, your backed up data is really accessible. Test, test, test!
- Testing
- There are two types of beta testing that are generally used.
- Public beta in which anyone and everyone is as general rule welcome to participate
- Private beta wherein only a limited number of people are allowed into the testing
In order to be effective beta testing requires active participation. So how exactly do you participate? It’s really not that hard, but sometimes people make it out to be more difficult than it needs to be. I think the word testing in Beta testing throws people for a loop. Lets take a look at how to be an effective beta tester.
- Keep track of the details so you can repeat if necessary and instruct others how to do the same thing
- Don’t make changes to fast. Let things settle in for a little while before you change something else
- Keep a manual log of changes you’ve made. If you install a program write down what program and when
- Participate in forums, chats, and other online activities involving the beta testers for the product you are working on
- Submit bugs or other issues with whatever you are testing to the proper people. Generally they’ll have some sort of bug tracking system in place. Use it!
Above all else remember to be patient. Most of the time beta goes by without any real incidents, but when there is an issue you need to be as patient as possible
I hope these tips proved helpful to you when it comes to beta testing.
Don't forget to subscribe to A Blog about Nothing's RSS feed!
By Karen on Dec 22, 2007
I have heard good things about the new Firefox, some claim that it is much faster and that those pesky memory leaks are now closed.
Good advice on the backups, always a good idea.
By A Blog about Nothing on Dec 23, 2007
Karen - Backups are especially important when you’re beta testing a product as it is almost always without exception “at your own risk” so if it deletes programs or even fries hardware, too bad… You took the risk.