TryBeta.com

We got a lot of great feedback from our online survey last week. If you haven’t taken it yet, you can still fill it out here.

It’s interesting to see how many developers either rely on their own testing and don’t have a formal beta program, or do have a beta program but hardly if ever hear from their beta testers. This made up about half of the surveys.

Virtually every developer who filled out the survey felt that beta testing was extremely important or very important but not their highest concern. Over half thought it was extremely important to beta test their software.

70% of developers who did not have a beta testing program, would like to start one and the remaining 25% or so of developers would consider starting one.

Problems faced with Beta Testing
Can’t find reliable testers - 56%
Feedback is inadequate or incomplete - 51%
Hardly or never hear back from testers - 32%
Too hard to manage - 6%

Some other problems felt by developers;
Not enough people who understand the software
Beta Testers Lack Time
Beta Testers don’t have the resources (ie hardware, software etc…) to test the software

Essential Features of a Beta Program;
Easy way to submit feedback - 73%
Active involvement of the developers - 59%
Having an organized way to manage user feedback - 44%
Incentives for users who beta test - 32%
Group discussions between testers - 27%
As many users as possible - 24%

Some other essential features of a beta program;
- Clear instructions on how to report bugs
- Know the experience of users
- Automated testing

We truly hope that TryBeta will help developers produce more stable products. Thanks for the feedback, and stay tuned for our early adopters program.

TryBeta is for you, the software developer looking to make sure your software is stable, high quality, and accepted by your potential market. We believe it’s going to be a great resource for all developers and we want to make sure that it is not only an affordable option for developers, but that it provides the features that developers are looking for.

Please fill out this quick questionnaire. We take all feedback very seriously and would like to know, based on your experiences, what makes a good beta testing program. What do you, as a software developer need? What do you want TryBeta to do for you?

We look forward to hearing what you have to say.

Note: All fields are optional

If you would like to read up on TryBeta, you can read an earlier post describing the service.

You can sign up on our main page to be notified when TryBeta is launched

We’ve been working really hard on getting everything ready. All the the functionality is there, we are just re-working the interface and looking for critical issues.

The site is coming together very nicely. We want to make sure that it is as easy to use as possible before we start inviting developers and testers to try it out.

I am going to post very soon how we plan to launch the web site. Remember to sign up on the front page to be notified when we launch.

Here is a little teaser to show what the web site looks like now. Enjoy:)

Today a discussion in the ASP Newsgroups started about potential users who  feel it may be ok to steal software if they can not afford it. Unfortunantly, not everyone is able to have the opportunity to purchase your software, and thats normal for any product. The problem is that because software is so easy to steal, customers don’t really understand the consequences of their actions. Its not as if these same people would rob a Sony store for a 50 inch plasma TV just because they want it but cant afford it.

For the users like this who can not afford to buy your software, surely they must understand the risks of downloading illegal cracks with the potential of viruses or spyware. Even more so, they may be willing to donate some money, but without any push, they quickly forget.

An obvious reaction would be to try and do everything you can to prevent these users from being able to steal your software. Using dongles, online validation, multiple registration checks etc… are a few ways developers can fight this problem. However, do we really want to put ourselves in the same situation as the Music Industry put themselves?

I believe we can turn these users into our beta testers and get their valuable feedback. In return, these users will get substantial discounts or free copies of their favorite products. These users are not thieves or pirates. They are everyday people who do not have the means to pay for your software for whatever reason. What if we could say to them “Try our software, tell us what you think, and we’ll give you a free version with no viruses or spyware”? This would provide a win-win situation for both software developers and software users.

Trying to finish up the last feature…comments.

Then we’ll give it a quick bug test on our end and open it up for beta testing. Fill out the form on the front page to be notified when we launch!

Who is going to use your software? What kind of experience will your users have? Will they read through your entire manual? Does your manual even make sense to your users?

There are lots of questions to consider in software development. The overall goal of software development is to get end users to use your software. As a software developer you’ve probably gotten emails from users along the lines of;

“Your software doesn’t work” or “Your product crashed my computer, fix it”

One of biggest problems in software development is not necessarily that it is impossible to fix all coding bugs, but that potentially millions of people will use your software the way they believe it should be used. They may have grown to expect that certain functionality works a certain way or they may have come from a different operating system where a certain feature worked differently. Your users will no doubt find a way to use your program in a way that you have not thought of before.

TryBeta aims to help you with both of these issues. It will link you up with your actual potential user base to find high quality, reliable beta testers. These users will know your software is in beta stage and will not expect anything more. Pending your approval, these users will actively test and report bugs, usability issues, feature requests and suggestions. You will be provided with real feedback by the very same people who will be using your software.

In order to find quality beta testers, TryBeta provides a two way feedback system between beta testers and developers. Without giving to much away, developers will easily be able to get a good idea about how testers have performed in the past.

TryBeta is targeted towards the small company and independent software vendor. It provides them with the resources to conduct their beta program with the added security of knowing they are getting reliable beta testers.

The beta process is not just about testing your code. It’s also about testing the viability of your product in the market. This is what TryBeta helps do for the software developer.

Integrity and security of the web site is very important to us. If you don’t want your product released to all beta testers on the web site, you don’t have to. We have included features in the web site which allow you to control how public you would like to make your software.

Some developers have asked how beta testers will be attracted to the web site. I’ll save what we’re going to do for beta testers for the next post…

Do features sell software? When you create products that can do more than your competitor’s products, does that give you the advantage?

David Pogue, the personal technology columnist for The New York Times, has an interesting, and very entertaining presentation on designing both hardware and software that is easy to use, not necessarily packed with features.

If you are a software developer, you should definitely check it out. Our hope is that with TryBeta you will get the feedback from your potential users before you release it to the public. This way changes that you have to make can be done earlier and before you leave a potential bad impression with the public.

This is also one thing we are trying to accomplish with the design of TryBeta. Recently we were working on some design issues with the Developer’s administrative area. We want to make sure it is real easy to use, even though the people who will be using this section will already be experienced computer users. We cut some features that did not fit into the design and will add them later on as we get feedback from developers.

We’ve added a few new enhancements today though. I’ll have a longer post over the next few days which will answer some common questions about the site.

Thanks for visiting TryBeta.com. Over the next few weeks I will post some more info on what exactly TryBeta is what it will do for software developers and software users.

Right now we are completing some final fixes on the web site. We are very close to finishing everything up. Afterwords we will be focusing on security and reliability of the web site. Its been a pretty big job, but everything is coming togethor nicely. Check back soon, and remember to sign up at TryBeta.com to be notified when the site launches. After the initial stage of testing, developers who sign up for the notification will be the first to get to logon to the site. We will be limiting sign ups, so remember to get listed as soon as possible.