When to remove the Beta tag?

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+3 Q:

When to remove the Beta tag?

My team will soon be launching a web app in Beta. At what point does the Beta tag need to go?

Google seems to hold on to the Beta tag for a long time while others do it for a month or so. Is there some rule of thumb like all known bugs fixed to follow or a time frame or some other methodology for this?

Of course when Beta is gone then money can be made so how does development relate the importance of a beta period to management?

I am wanting to know what are/is the criteria that should be used for a Beta to be marked complete. Not when we are ready but when the app is ready.

+4 A:

How long your software remains "Beta" completely depends on the meaning you give to it. Usually stepping out of beta means the application reached "some level" of quality, or is stable enough (not much new features, API is stable, ... pretty use-case dependent).

So ultimately, it completely depends on how you want to communicate with your customers and what you want your very own "beta" to be. Make it clear, stick to it, done.

Romain 2010-03-03 19:42:39

Not to mention when you're ready to actually start supporting your app.

Justin Niessner 2010-03-03 19:44:03

Just to be totally clear, there's a common misconception that beta has a meaning. It doesn't. There is no definition for what "beta" means, and in many (bordering on most these days) it means nothing at all.

Cory Petosky 2010-03-03 19:47:41

@Cory: That is absolutely true. It means what you want it to mean, if you want it to have a specific meaning. Google is a brilliant example of "Beta means roughly nothing"-ness

Romain 2010-03-03 20:40:32

+1 A:

An app in Beta means it isn't ready for production use. If you take your app out of beta, be prepared for people to use it in critical production environments. And as Justin said, be ready to support it as well.

Byron Whitlock 2010-03-03 19:45:25

It will be supported from day one as we hope to gain feedback form beta. We have an app out now that it is replacing. So our best customers will be invited and then give feedback.

Todd Moses 2010-03-03 19:49:16

+1 A:

Shrink-wrap software goes through the following sequence: alpha, beta, release candidate, production. Alpha means it's in development, but good for testing. Beta means that it's feature complete and ready for testing. Release candidate means that this might be the final version, but it needs to be tested to be sure. Productions means that we've given up on it and it's now for sale.

For web applications, beta means "new".

Jeffrey L Whitledge 2010-03-03 19:55:20

This is completely wrong. Every organization uses a different set of labels and meanings. While many (most?) orgs use "beta" as a state somewhere along the line (though mine does not!), practically every one of them mean something different by it.

Cory Petosky 2010-03-03 19:57:30

@Cory Petosky - If the word "beta" is completely meaningless outside of the context of a particular organization, then why in the world are we having a discussion about what it means?

Jeffrey L Whitledge 2010-03-03 20:03:55

@Jeffrey: I would imagine because people think there is a generally accepted meaning; certainly the posted question seems to assume that. However, a lot of people and places use it, often with different practical meanings. There are companies that release production software with horrible bugs and features that don't work well, and places whose beta software is normally good enough to use and rely on.

David Thornley 2010-03-03 20:20:18

@David Thornley - Indeed such companies exist. But our terminology and our practice should not be determined by the exceptional cases, but rather by the normal use and practice.

Jeffrey L Whitledge 2010-03-03 20:30:38

It is interesting to me that the objections to "beta" as a word are coming only in the comments. Why hasn't anyone posted an answer that says "Beta is no longer useful as a word to describe software. Simply state on your front page 'Under development' and forget about it."?

Jeffrey L Whitledge 2010-03-03 20:31:08

+1 A:

There is a difference/independence between technical version numbering (1.2.3 alpha-beta-RC etc.) and giving products brand names and tags. Because it is displayed to the customers, I believe in your case "beta" is not a technical version numbering, but rather a business term and should be handled as such.

Tags like beta can signal what quality your product is in business terms of reliability, availability, security etc. After removing the beta tag you could let's say guarantee that the user interface, DOM model, document export format or public API is not going to change. Or you could remove the beta tag when you have decided what guaranteed SLA to provide.

sibidiba 2010-03-03 22:36:42

+1 A:

While agreeing that there's no formal definition for 'beta' I'd argue that it should be reasonable to assume that a web application's transition out of beta is when the developers think that it's in a state where it's fully usable by its target audience -- not that it's never going to change, but that people aren't in general going to be waiting on a feature to be finished or a bug to be fixed before they can use the website.

Andrew Aylett 2010-03-03 22:54:32

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When to remove the Beta tag?

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