Alpha Test

An alpha test is the first phase of testing during product and software development of any business. The goal of alpha test is to review the quality of the product and identify any bugs before the software is released to customers.

Usually, alpha test is conducted in a lab or staged environment by internal employees, when the product is 75 to 90% complete. All major features must be present before alpha testing to make sure the core components work correctly.

Software testing tools are used by teams to complete alpha tests and determine whether the product is in a usable state which helps decide if the product is ready to move forward to customers in a beta test.

Smoke testing, Integration testing, UI testing, Sanity testing and Regression testing are main types of alpha testing. However, the kind of alpha test to be conducted will depend on the product or software being tested, as not all types work with every possible product.

Usability, Functionality, Stability and Performance are the basic elements of alpha tests which are are assessed during an alpha test to determine if a product or software is working as expected.

Understanding crucial insights, developing higher quality software, saving money and delivering the final product faster are some of the benefits of alpha tests.