Alpha Testing : What it is, Why ,Process & When to Automate?

To be qualified for release, the software goes through various testing phases, from unit testing to end-to-end automation testing. Once all of these are completed, a manual inspection is required to verify that all the functionalities work as per the business requirement. This is done by the internal members of the organization, and the process is called “Alpha Testing”. It is a task that requires a calculated approach with careful execution of steps to gain maximum output.

What is Alpha Testing?

Alpha testing in software testing is the last phase of testing performed by an internal team to ensure that the functionalities are working as expected. It is performed before the software is released to all the users or before the start of beta testing. The goal is to make sure that even though the testing phases have given a green signal for release, the developers and testers can use the software (especially the functionalities developed in this cycle) similarly to an end-user and find any bugs that were missed during these phases. When the bugs are found, they are rectified by the developers, and the process is repeated until all bugs are resolved.

When to Perform Alpha Testing?

Alpha testing does not look at the code compatibility with the existing stable code (like regression testing) or how individual code units perform in isolation (like unit testing). The main goal of this testing is to ensure that the software is ready for release and to be used by the end-user. 

To test software at this stage, first, it has to confirm that it works by all standards set by the testing team. There is no point in performing Alpha testing before regression testing and knowing later that a certain line of code breaks existing functionality. Due to all these reasons, the best time to perform Alpha testing is at the last stage before the release when it is confirmed by the testing team that the software has been tested through various techniques from various domains.

What are the Reasons for Performing Alpha Testing?

The following reasons for performing alpha testing in software engineering justify its existence and importance in today’s testing world.

• Identify bugs before release: Like any other testing approach, this testing aims at identifying bugs before the application gets in the hands of users. However, the bugs found in this approach are unique and could not have been exposed by other testing methods.

• Validates functional requirements: This testing is performed to mimic end-users and to determine the depth of each functionality developed for them in this release. This helps verify the functional requirements from a technical angle without getting into the details of coding.

• Verifies usability of application: Since alpha testing is performed as an end-user, it helps understand the user experience and usability gaps in the application, even if they are not related to the functionality developed in this release. This is crucial as 88% of people never return to the application if their user experience is not good.

• Prepares for beta testing: This testing is similar to beta testing with a small difference that alpha testing is performed by very few people who are from the technical team and know the technical intricacies of the application. This is a good foundation to lay down before beta testing is performed by non-technical users.

• Understand the app from a user’s perspective: This testing helps the team understand the application from a user’s perspective. Any anomalies, suggestions, or feedback raised in this phase can be noted down and used for development in the future, as these comments will provide a deeper picture of the user’s point of view.

All these reasons are enough to understand how important alpha testing is today when there is so much competition and users generally do not tend to forgive even smaller mistakes.

Who is Responsible for Alpha Testing?

Alpha testing is performed by the internal members of the organization, unlike beta testing which is performed by people outside. These internal members are divided into two domains:

• QA team
• Software development team

Both of these teams work according to the experience and the knowledge they have gathered about the product and its functionalities. Once the testing is completed and usability checks are verified, any bugs encountered during the process are documented and sent to the developer for rectification.

Objectives of Alpha Testing

Alpha testing works towards a specific goal since it is manual and does not worry about the things already tested by other types of testing. These goals scrutinize the application from a different viewpoint, which makes alpha testing an important part of the testing cycle.

• To identify any bugs in the usability of the application and how end-users will navigate around it.

• Verify whether the functionality developed by the developers is working as expected at the highest level. Developers verify this objective as per their understanding of the requirements.

• Verify whether the software is stable with the new features and does not have any lags.

• Make sure that post-release bugs go down to a minimum.

• Make sure everything is foundationally set for beta testing in the usability and functional space. Beta testing, being the next logical step to alpha testing, should come as smoothly as possible.

All the objectives fulfilled by alpha testing cannot be covered through automation. Such things require manual intervention and a manual touch, and therefore, this justifies alpha testing’s existence more than ever.

Features of Alpha Testing

Alpha testing sustains the following characteristics:

• It is performed by the team that constitutes members from inside the organization and generally those who have worked on the application (developers and testers).

• It should not start before any other testing process, such as integration or end-to-end testing. It should be initiated after all these processes have been completed and no depth or breadth testing is required.

• The center of alpha testing has to be the end-user, and the application should be seen from their point of view.

• It should constitute both white box testing as well as black box testing to span their testing scope to all parts of the application.

• Testing steps are designed to build confidence in the team in a way that the user would not face any challenges while operating the application, especially the features developed in this release.

• It should also aim towards the betterment of application quality along with experiencing the application according to the user.

• It helps ensure that the business requirements are met and that the application fits well with those business needs.

• It should ensure that critical functionalities are highly prioritized.

These features are important characteristics of alpha testing that it should possess so that the cycle is efficient and the team gets maximum output from it.

Read more on Alpha Testing VS Beta Testing

Phases in Alpha Testing

Alpha testing in software engineering is conducted in two phases with both phases executed by different teams.

Phase 1: The software development team works on the application from a development perspective. This would generally mean that the team uses development tools like inspecting elements and making sure functionality is working as they developed it. There is no textbook testing involved in this phase, and one can consider it to be usability testing by developers.

Phase 2: The second phase starts after the first phase when the development team provides clearance from their side. This phase is conducted by the QA team with specialized tools. The testing is divided into black-box testing and white-box testing, with each scrutinizing the behavior of the application. If any bug is found, it is documented and assigned to the developer.

Both of these phases work in a set process that includes multiple steps in a structural form.

What is the Alpha Testing Process?

• Alpha testing is the first stage of testing software or hardware end-to-end.
• We conduct this testing to identify potential issues before releasing the product to the public.
• The developers or the company’s internal testers perform alpha testing.
• We test the product in a simulated environment similar to the actual production environment during the alpha testing process.
• The testers evaluate the product’s functionality, usability, and performance.
• The development team logs and fixes any bugs and issues.
• After resolving all the issues, the product is ready for the next beta testing stage.

How to Perform Alpha Testing?

Alpha testing goes through a series of processes that start from planning till the application is handed over for the next process, which is beta testing.

• Planning: The first phase in alpha testing is the planning phase, in which the team has to decide the objective of their testing, set goals, set success criteria, prepare test steps, etc. This phase is meant to lay down all the groundwork before starting the testing part.

• Verification of testing records: Alpha testing should be performed after all the test phases have already been done. But this needs to be verified once to check whether the phases have been completed successfully and no bugs are pending. It prevents developers from raising duplicate bugs and, hence saves everyone’s time.

• Execution: In the next phase, the team starts the execution of tests on the application. This is done in a sequence as planned by the team in the planning phase. However, the sequence may resemble the following phases of tests:
  • Functional testing – Testing the features and functionality being released in this sprint.
  • Usability testing – Testing the level of user experience and user satisfaction.
  • Performance testing – Testing the performance of the application and measuring any drops in performance, if they exist.
  • Security testing – Testing the security of the application from a higher level.

• Validation and evaluation: In this step, the developers need to evaluate the testing process and validate the steps they performed. If the bugs are spotted, they can be fixed in this step as well.

• Retesting: When all the bugs are fixed, alpha testing is performed again to test whether the fix has broken the code in any other area. This is an important step to avoid any post-production bugs.

• Reporting: The testers generate a report that documents their objectives, processes, and findings to make sure there is a reference document for reference in the future.

• Handover to beta test: Once the reporting is done, alpha testing is considered complete, and the software can be handed over for the next phase, i.e. beta testing.

Testers are advised to perform alpha testing in the same order to avoid backtracking in the future.

Should Alpha Testing be Automated?

Alpha testing is a largely manual process because the developers and the testers have to act as end-users and operate the application. Being manual is, in fact, what makes alpha testing an effective and recommended phase in the testing cycle.

However, sometimes the testers and developers might feel that their actions are repeated in each sprint. This could often happen when the newer functionality is the extension of an existing feature or in sequence with it. In such cases, automation can help take off a partial load from the alpha testing team and validate certain functionalities that would have taken time manually. However, one should remember that these scenarios are not always the case (repeated scenarios), and the automation can be applied to only a smaller part of the overall alpha testing phase. If it is not a heavy burden, it is better to perform alpha testing manually.

When to Automate Alpha Tests?

When considering whether to automate alpha tests, evaluating the complexity and frequency of the tests is important. If the tests are simple and infrequent, it may not be worth the investment in automation; however, if you automate complex tasks, that must be done regularly. So that you can save time and resources while increasing accuracy and consistency.

Regarding automation, Testsigma is the best Automation tool you can choose. An open-source tool where anyone can automate the test cases using simple English. You can use natural language and your business lexicon to automate tests. The record and playback approach makes it easy to automate test cases. Testsigma works well with basic as well as complex test scenarios.

Perform Alpha Testing Using Testsigma

Alpha testing has two main hurdles:

• Executing manual actions (time-consuming)
• Performing testing on multiple browsers and devices (cross-browser)

Both of these hurdles can be resolved by opting for Testsigma, a cloud-based test automation platform that provides support for alpha testing elements as well. While one can use Testsigma for test automation, one can also perform manual actions, record them, and reuse them later using their mobile test recorder.

• To use the Mobile Test Recorder on Testsigma, sign up for a free account on the platform.
• Create a new project by selecting the type of application to be uploaded. For instance, Android, iOS, or Web.
• Select Test Data -> Uploads and upload the binary file of the application to start operating on it. 
• Click on Create Test Cases to start creating test cases in the English language or record the test steps by directly operating the application.

• Record the test steps to run them frequently on other scenarios and avoid repeated manual work.

The second hurdle of cross-browser testing can also be avoided by using real devices from the Testsigma platform. 

This image shows the integration of Testsigma with multiple tools that can be used from a single dashboard and eliminate the use of multiple software. It also contains a point of “Test Lab” which refers to the real device lab offered by SauceLabs or BrowserStack integrated into the tool. These devices can be launched directly from Testsigma and operated just like a physical device but without ever buying one.

Entry and Exit Criteria of Alpha Testing

This post has talked about certain conditions necessary to be fulfilled before the testers can start the testing. These conditions, and those that point toward successful completion of alpha testing in software engineering, can be summarised for a quick reference.

Entry criteria of Alpha testing

The entry criteria in testing are referred to the checklist that needs to be completed before the testing can begin.

• Documentation regarding features and software specifications is complete and reviewed by the stakeholders.

• All the testing processes have already concluded.

• All the critical bugs reported in the testing phases that have a severe impact on the business are already fixed.

• At least 50% of bugs (non-critical) have been fixed on primary target platforms.

• Various types of testing have concluded on all the primary target platforms (indicating cross-browser and cross-platform testing).

• The final build approved by the testing team for release is available for alpha testing.

• There are no new features to be added later in this release (not even minor improvements).

• All the data required for testing is collected, organized, and available to all the team members that will be involved in alpha testing.

• The test environment has been set up on all the team members’ platforms involved in alpha testing.

• The tools required for alpha testing are already set up and all team members are familiar with these tools.

Once all these entry criteria are satisfied, the tester can proceed with alpha testing.

Exit criteria of Alpha testing

Similar to the entry criteria, the exit criteria of alpha testing in software testing corresponds to the checklist required to conclude the alpha testing phase successfully.

• Each phase planned for alpha testing (as discussed in the previous section) has been concluded.

• Any bugs, suggestions, or feedback reported in this phase are implemented.

• A complete report has been prepared and approved by the stakeholders.

• The application is as ready as the release setup has to be.

Once the exit criteria are met, the alpha testing phase is concluded, and the binary should be ready for the beta testing phase.

Advantages of Alpha Testing

Incorporating alpha testing in the testing cycles can provide a lot of advantages to the team, organization, and end-user.

• It provides a deeper insight into the software, especially from the standpoint of an end-user, which is a crucial parameter for an application’s success.

• Since alpha testing can point out the bugs with the help of internal teams without releasing them, it saves the cost of rectifying post-production bugs.

• It can assure the team that business requirements are met and included in this release.

• It is a good technique to identify performance bottlenecks that can easily be missed in automated cycles. Hence, ultimately improving the performance of the application.

• If the team had plans to perform beta testing (which is always a recommended path to take), alpha testing provides a lot of foundational work and a technical clearance for beta testing to take place.

Disadvantages of Alpha Testing

Alpha testing in software testing comes with a few disadvantages as well that do not overshadow its advantages but should be known to the testers.

• It is majorly a manual (almost always) process. A manual process is bound to take a lot of time since humans do it at their own pace and cannot compete with a machine. Due to this, it is important to plan alpha testing carefully and give it ample time to perform.

• It is performed by developers and QA testers manually where they inspect the functionalities and confirm the business requirements. To do this, they have to be aware of the application and its functionality inside out. This can limit the number of testers that can be assigned to this process in each cycle.

• Developers and testers have already worked on the application, developing its code and testing it through various processes. It is sometimes unavoidable to have a bias towards the application since both of them already know how it works. Due to this, they can miss the actual bugs that could be spotted by the end-users post-production.

• While alpha testing aims to mimic the end-user environment, it still works on the testing environment prepared by the testers. This is not 100% similar to the conditions an end-user would face, due to which the testers can miss certain bugs.

Best Practices for Alpha Testing

The techniques and methods discussed in the previous sections can easily commence and conclude alpha testing for the testers. However, if best practices are not followed, certain phases can result in inaccurate results while certain phases may take too much time to execute. To avoid such occurrences, the following best practices are advised:

• Use real devices: Using real devices provides accurate parameter values because the end-user would also be using the same device with the same (and actual) hardware configurations. Virtual devices can provide misleading results, raising post-production bugs.

• Log all the activities: Logging the activities helps provide a clear picture to the stakeholders about the tasks performed. Also, if a bug is reported post-production that should have been caught in alpha testing, the team can refer to the logs and keep such references for future alpha testing sessions.

• Make sure specs are reviewed: Alpha testing is conducted through the specification prepared during the planning phase. It is important to make sure that this specification is reviewed and approved before starting the testing.

• Do not leave any part to beta testing: Beta testing follows alpha testing and is done in a similar way but by non-technical end users. In alpha testing, sometimes, testers and developers may leave a few things that they are not sure of and probably would want to know the beta testing results. This can sometimes create problems if beta testing does not identify those issues at all. Hence, it is advised to leave nothing to beta testing and conduct alpha testing from all corners.

• Choose the correct team: Alpha testing in software engineering needs to be done concerning an end-user but with the internal team. To make sure that the testers do not conduct this testing as “testers” and developers as “developers”, the team needs to select those individuals that have that capability. They should be able to drop their skills as professionals while still keeping their technical side turned on.

• Do not forget non-functional requirements: Non-functional requirements are sometimes more important than functional requirements because they may shift the user experience on the negative side, such as lagging and loading issues. Alpha testing should include non-functional requirements as well to make sure such issues do not pass on to the user.

Alpha Testing Tips

Maximize the benefits with these effective strategies:

1. Log Every Issue: Record all bugs and usability issues. Even unresolved items can be addressed later or held in the backlog for post-release consideration.
2. Prioritize Alpha Over Beta: Don’t postpone issue addressing until beta testing. Addressing more issues in alpha makes the product appear polished to public beta testers, avoiding distractions from known issues.
3. Review Specs Before Testing: Alpha testers should familiarize themselves with functional specs and test cases before testing. This establishes a baseline understanding and a focused approach.
4. Retesting by Issue Loggers: The person who discovered a bug should confirm its resolution through retesting. Don’t solely rely on the developer’s word.
5. Consensus Before Exiting: Ensure alpha testers agree that the product is ready for beta testing. Provide a platform for concerns to be raised before finalizing the decision.
6. Include Non-Technical Employees: Enlist a diverse group, including non-tech employees. Their perspective brings a balanced review to the product.
7. Test the Entire User Experience: Assess the product’s usability in real-world workflows. Comprehensive testing includes the end-to-end user journey.
8. Boot Camp for Sales and Marketing: Involve sales and marketing teams in alpha testing. Immersing them in test scenarios enhances their understanding of the user experience, enabling more authoritative product presentations.
9. Practice for Customer Support: Include customer support in alpha testing. This equips them with insights into product changes before they address real customers, adding a customer-focused lens.

Summary

Alpha testing is a process similar to beta testing but is performed before it. While both processes are similar as they take the viewpoint of an end-user, they do differ on certain crucial parameters as discussed in this post. Considering technical elements and having a non-technical point of view is one of the primary challenges that make this type of testing hard to perform. To smooth things out, testers and developers work in phases and pre-defined sequences of steps that have proven fruitful in the past.

Alpha testing in software engineering may not be the most talked about process and comes with its demerits of taking too much time and indulging resources for manual work, but it has become an essential entity of the testing cycle. It helps provide confidence regarding the software and exposes bugs that could have been missed through automation and other testing types. Such benefits provide a hefty return on investment and a stamp of trust from the users, which is what every organization yearns for.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is it called Alpha testing?

Alpha testing is conducted as the first end-to-end automation testing that tests how the application adheres to the business requirements. Since it is the “first”, it is termed “alpha”, which is the first Greek letter.

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