With the upcoming release of nGen Collaboration v8.0 Beta, I thought it timely to discuss nGenera's usage of the term "Beta" (and, in a sense, it's lesser known cousins "Alpha" and "GA"). 

For us, the "Beta" designation conveys primarily a release's target audience and secondarily the release's development stage.  In this regard, the nomenclature follows the newer model pioneered by agile/iterative companies like Google, rather than the originating testing-oriented model.  In this new model, software is made available on production servers for a limited audience and then rapidly evolved based on user feedback.  This closes the gap between users and vendor, at the risk of exposing those users to software defects.  We find that risk worth (a) the partnership it creates between the parties and (b) the feedback received.

The actual audience can be determined many ways.  With G-Mail for example, Google started with an initial list of hardcore fans, then allowed those early adopters to invite a limited number of friends.  At nGenera, we can pick from our own properties (e.g. www.ngenera.com, etc.) and those of our customers when determining a suitable audience.

So, to our nGen Collab v8.0 Beta users, I say welcome to the process!  For everyone else, you can look for our v8.0 GA (Generally Available) release next month.  Watch the Product Release Calendar and Product Management group for more details.

BTW, for those wondering about an "Alpha" here's the excerpt from our release naming rules:

The Audience is one of "Alpha", "Beta", and "GA".  Meanings are:

• Alpha or Beta. An early release of functionality targeted at value-chain partners and/or "evangelist" customers (i.e. customers in a satisfied, supportive relationship). Typically, Alpha and Beta releases help solicit usability and/or interoperability feedback. Alpha is distinguished from Beta by being:
  • Less stable,
  • Less feature complete, and
  • A substantially smaller audience. 
  • For all these reasons, Alpha releases should be rarely done, as the risk and effort usually falls short of the reward.
• GA (General Availability). A fully commercialized, fully deployed, public release. GA is the default Audience for releases and, therefore, is often omitted in favor of terser labeling, e.g. v3.0 vs. v3.0 GA are both said to be equivalent.