🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <68...@eds.ericsson.se>, lme...@eds.ericsson.se (Bengt G{llmo, 
L M Ericsson, Stockholm, Sweden) writes:
> 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 ...

PS. Bald Peak Colony Club, Melwin Village, New Hampshire, June 1961.

See Bashe et al, IBM's Early Computers, pp 368 - 371, which describes
the meeting, including the decision to expand product testing to include
programs. The book does not mention the term Beta test, but that meeting 
is when it was coined.