Beta testing can be fun. It lets you have input into the development of a software product, and through the related forums you get to see a lot of insightful input from others. It can be a good way to learn, as well as contribute to the quality of a product.
But, sometimes it can be a real pain.
For example, I encountered major problems from participating in early testing of version 2.3 of WordPress, the blogging software I use for this site. I actually began testing it at the alpha stage (pre-beta), but decided it had too many bugs for a live blog and went back to 2.2. This turned out being an unwise thing to do, because the database table structure for 2.3 is different than for 2.2, and when I re-upgraded to 2.3 (after it was released to the public), I had a huge number of problems related to upgrading from a blog that had part of a 2.2 database and part of a 2.3 database.
I have spent most of this week resolving all of these problems (along with a good part of the weekend and last week, too). Fortunately, the problems were pretty transparent for readers of the blog, but they were major headaches from an admin point of view.
There is nobody to blame in this saga, unless it is me. But, the lesson is that you really need to try to understand as much about the beta software before taking it on, especially if there are any changes in how it handles your data.
What is almost as frustrating is testing a product from a major corporation when they call it beta, and it is really more like alpha software (software that is not ready for any public testing and should be tested more internally before releasing for beta testing). I began testing such a product a few days ago and have just finished uninstalling it.
Frustrating.
I am not ready to give up beta testing. In fact, this post was drafted using a beta version of Windows Live Writer running in Windows on my Mac through the latest beta of VMware Fusion. But I hope I have learned some lessons about beta testing and I hope sharing this with you will help you minimize painful experiences when beta testing.
What about you? Have you gotten burned in doing beta testing (or alpha testing)?
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