well,
Having been involved with projects that used this "frequent release" approach, the approach is applicable to situations where critical components of the overall delivery mechanism are already available. Using web and browser based delivery systems where application software and data can be delivered on a just-in-time basis, one can realistically think of delivering a useful product very early in the product development life cycle by adapting existing functionality in an intelligent fashion to address high-priority client issues. Delivering limited functionality outside the firewall early on may be viewed favorably from a marketing and competitive standpoint if expectations and risks are managed, positive word of mouth can be captured, and an early foothold in market share can be gained.
There may also be situations where a frequently-updated, partially functional beta approach might be viewed as inappropriate. For example, consider a comprehensive re-architecting of a complex financial, medical, or insurance system. The ability to employ a limited-functionality release mechanism could be seen as risky depending on the degree to which back-end or interfaced systems might be impacted during development, and depending on the actual access provided to a public beta. In such development efforts, a frequent-beta approach might be appropriate even if the overall availability of the beta software is restricted to a controlled development-and-test environment.
This could be an issue of "scope management" that any development manager will need to control, whether the product is a social software product appealing to pre-teens or a financial management product in a highly regulated business environment. Whatever the application, modern tools enable developers to communicate and obtain useful feedback in a fraction of the time than was possible in the past. With appropriate management practices and controls, many projects should be able to take advantage of early beta approaches, and we see the evidence of this all over the web.
source site: http://www.ddmcd.com/managing- technology/does-beta-software- have-meaning-in-a-web-20-world .html
Answered by
Nidhi Singh
, an ibibo Master,
at
5:19 PM on September 24, 2008