#Alpha beta gamma delta software#

No feature development or enhancement of the software is undertaken tightly scoped bug fixes are the only code you're allowed to write in this phase, and even then only for the most heinous and debilitating of bugs. The software is almost ready for final release. Betas are either closed (private) and limited to a specific set of users, or they can be open to the general public. Beta software is usually feature complete, but may have known limitations or bugs. The software is complete enough for external testing - that is, by groups outside the organization or community that developed the software. This is typically done by people other than the software engineers who wrote it, but still within the same organization or community that developed the software. The software is complete enough for internal testing. There may be milestones during the pre-alpha which deliver specific sets of functionality, and nightly builds for other developers or users who are comfortable living on the absolute bleeding edge.

The software is still under active development and not feature complete or ready for consumption by anyone other than software developers. As other companies began developing software for their own use, and for distribution to others, the terminology stuck - and is now part of our common vocabulary.īased on the software release lifecycle page, and my personal experience, here's how I'd characterize each phase of software development: With the advent of programmable computers and the first shareable software programs, IBM used the same terminology for testing software. And finally, a c test to verify final safety. Then came a beta test, by people or groups other than the developers, to verify that the hardware correctly performed the functions it was supposed to, and that it could be manufactured at scales necessary for the market. Hardware first went through an alpha test for preliminary functionality and small scale manufacturing feasibility. The term beta test comes from an IBM hardware product test convention, dating back to punched card tabulating and sorting machines. Presumably these characters were chosen because they refer to the first and second rounds of software testing, respectively.īut where did these terms originate? There's an uncited Wikipedia section that claims the alpha and beta monikers came, as did so many other things, from the golden days of IBM: As we begin the private beta for Stack Overflow later this week, I wondered: where do the software terms alpha and beta come from? And why don't we ever use gamma?Īlpha and Beta are the first two characters of the Greek alphabet.

Alpha beta gamma delta