🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <13...@qualcom.qualcomm.com>, f...@qualcom.qualcomm.com
(Franklin Antonio) writes:
> The terminology "beta test" has become so common in the computer industry
> that i forgot that i had no idea where it came from.  The term "alpha test"
> is also widely used, to mean the stuff that comes before beta testing, of
> course.
>
> Does anyone know the orgin of these terms?  The history of the computer
> is so short, that we ought to be able to pin it down to a particular
> first use, probably in a journal article.  I'd guess something like
> IBM Systems Journal, in maybe 1961?

The time is about right, but the first use was not in any journal but
in an internal IBM meeting, where it was decided that separate product
tests were required for programming. Hardware already had A-, B- and C-
tests to clear a product for Announcement, Release to manufacturing and 
First customer shipment (FCS) respectively. The B-test was irrelevant 
to programming, so it ended up with two tests, somewhat arbitrarily named 
Alfa and Beta (Alfa and Gamma would have been more analogous to A- and C-), 
to approve a program for Announcement and FCS respectively. 

These terms were used only within IBM for many years, and the tests were 
performed within IBM, by a separate Product Test organization. Initially, 
the tests were only applied to systems software. Later, when they were
expanded to include applications software, it made sense to make some
Beta-test at customer sites, where the applications were. Later still,
I believe ingenious salesmen started misusing the Beta test to give
some customers an earlier delivery than they should have had; there
was no longer any systematic product testing at those sites, the 
customer just got a poorly debugged product. At about that time, IBM 
decided that Product Test had played its part and replaced it with 
Product Assurance (mid 70's).