Beta Test Strategy

  • Thread starter Thread starter Randy
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Randy

Anyone have any suggestions as to how I might initiate a
beta test/review of a soon-to-be-completed product?

What I'm imagining are fellow .net developers who would be
willing to take some time trying out the product in
exchange for a freebie. I'm not looking for debugging per
se. Mostly I need feedback as to the viability of the
product idea.

I am reluctant to employ an internet download or shareware
service, mainly because quality is a higher priority than
quantity at this stage.

Is MSDN an acceptable forum for soliciting reviewers?

Randy
 
Hi there,
Anyone have any suggestions as to how I might initiate a
beta test/review of a soon-to-be-completed product?
Click to expand...

What kind of product is the final going to be? Freeware, Shareware?
What I'm imagining are fellow .net developers who would be
willing to take some time trying out the product in
exchange for a freebie. I'm not looking for debugging per
se. Mostly I need feedback as to the viability of the
product idea.
Click to expand...

There are many ways that you can share your product with others to test.
Firstly there would be trying source code submission sites, such as Planet
Source Code, but PSC isn't the best of places for constructive feedback.
One other way would be to find other .NET developers that are willing to
test your application and email it to then (or have it available for
download somewhere), but remember if your wanting to sell your product other
developers might steal your ideas, this is what has stopped me from
distributing it like that. And lastly I suppose would be to set up your own
web site and have it available there, pleading for people to give feedback
on it.

When you say the "viability of the product idea" this seems to me that you
could just show a "design plan" for the application to people. Or are you
after full on bug testing? Remember that bug testing can take hours and be
very labourious, and you can be guaranteed that the people that WILL find
the bugs are the end users. So having it on your own site and promoting it
from there would be a good start :-)
I am reluctant to employ an internet download or shareware
service, mainly because quality is a higher priority than
quantity at this stage.
Click to expand...

Not all shareware services are bad, trust me! For example web attack appear
to be quite good, I have been impressed by their services, they have even
proposed some nifty download statistics features to be added soon. Also
Tucows are the biggest shareware distributors in the world, but getting
software onto their site is not easy at all, they don't seem to like me as
every time I have submitted something in the past they have rejected it, I'm
hoping my new application will pass their tests with flying colours.


--
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"No matter. Whatever the outcome, you are changed."

Fergus - September 5th 2003
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
 
Woops, sorry I sent the message by mistake....
Is MSDN an acceptable forum for soliciting reviewers?
Click to expand...

Hmmm, it might be, though you might get flak off of people who don't think
so.

I would love to offer to test your application but I am afraid that I don't
have time. I'm spending too long doing exactly what you want others to do
for you; myself. But at least that way I don't get irritated by bug
reports!! :-)

You might also want to add a "submit bug report" feature to your
application, these are allways a good way to go.

Nick.

--
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"No matter. Whatever the outcome, you are changed."

Fergus - September 5th 2003
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
 
The software is a group productivity tool as well as a
plug-in for .net development. As such, finding .net
developers to review it is a logical place to start.

Offering a version of it as freeware/shareware is an
option I am considering. However, at this stage, I'd like
to constrain deployment to a limited group of
established .net framework users.

I'm not really worried about someone stealing the idea.
After all, it really is just a logical extension of
something we all know and love. However, at over 10,000
lines of code, I would have enough of a jump to stay ahead.

Frankly, anyone who does .net development should
immediately see the value of this product. But only in
use will the truth be told.

Randy
 
The software is a group productivity tool as well as a
plug-in for .net development. As such, finding .net
developers to review it is a logical place to start.
Click to expand...

Then in that case I *could* be up for helping you with testing.
Frankly, anyone who does .net development should
immediately see the value of this product. But only in
use will the truth be told.
Click to expand...

Obviously if the testing to tool would become useful too, I could more than
easily help you. What does it do? Or are you not giving the game away, but
saying that you said it is a "group productivity tool" so maybe I wouldn't
be able to help as I program solo.

I'm sure others here may want to test it for you too :-)

Nick.

--
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"No matter. Whatever the outcome, you are changed."

Fergus - September 5th 2003
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
 
It's gonna be a couple weeks yet. I need to complete the
documentation.

I haven't developed a bug report scenario. I'm a little
unclear as to how to do this in a manner that provides
enough information for it to be useful. Perhaps you have
some advise on this subject?

I'd love to have you take a look when it's ready. I think
you'd find it to be a useful tool.

How can I get a hold of you?

Randy
 
Hi there,
I haven't developed a bug report scenario. I'm a little
unclear as to how to do this in a manner that provides
enough information for it to be useful. Perhaps you have
some advise on this subject?
Click to expand...

Well I am approaching doing exactly the same for my newest application. One
thing I am not going to imlement is one that generates a report
automatically when an exception occurs, I personally believe that this is
bad programming, i.e.

Try
Loads of code
Catch ex as exception
reporterror(ex)
End try

This also means that you would have to write error handlers *all over the
place*, where do you draw the line? Instead I am going to make a simple
submission form where the user enters the details necessary to get more
information on the bug, like the steps taken to replicate the bug (if
possible). The main point is that *a* bug submission feature is better than
*no* bug submission feature. The bugs should simply be sent via MAPI, with
an HTML report attached, I would also use an email address solely for the
purpose to help prevent spamming personal accounts.
I'd love to have you take a look when it's ready. I think
you'd find it to be a useful tool.
Click to expand...

Excellent, I would love to test it if it would be something that would be
used during normal development, mainly because I don't have time to test it
any other way. Also is it useful for solo developers? as I only work on my
own at the moment, if I'm not suitable as I have said before, I'm "sure"
that someone else would test it for you, I may be wrong, this crazy bunch
can suprise me sometimes ;-)
How can I get a hold of you?
Click to expand...

http://members.lycos.co.uk/nickpatemanpwp/

I keep meaning to replace my email link for something that can't be picked
up by a web crawler but I'm not sure how at the moment, maybe a flash
button... Hmmm...

Nick.

--
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"No matter. Whatever the outcome, you are changed."

Fergus - September 5th 2003
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
 
In my opinion, any developer would find this app useful,
not just during development, but as an add-on to .net apps.

I suppose I should start playing with bug reports. I
haven't attempted any MAPI email stuff yet, but I have a
fatal error trapping strategy in place that could easily
accommodate a final gasp before flaming death.

On the other hand, I simply have to stop putting off
finishing the documentation...

Randy
 
On the other hand, I simply have to stop putting off
finishing the documentation...
Click to expand...

LOL, I know exactly what you mean, but when do you draw the line at
developing? It would be nice if you could get someone else to write the
documentation, but noone knows your application like you do :-)

Nick.

--
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
"No matter. Whatever the outcome, you are changed."

Fergus - September 5th 2003
/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
 
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