Re: AR System 7.5 (an open beta by any other name...)
Carey, You may be reacting to the rules of the closed beta which don't apply to the open beta now underway. To sign up for the Open Beta, the requirements quoted from the communication are: * Have an active BMC Support ID. * Complete the pre-release software agreement. * Fax (408)716 2771 or email your signed beta agreement to [EMAIL PROTECTED] * Complete a qualification survey. The qualification survey is primarily to ensure that you have an environment supported by the beta so that you, as a customer, don't become frustrated by participating in a beta program that would not function in your environment. To the best of my knowledge, no one has been turned away from the open beta as long as the above tasks were completed. The pre-release software agreement is a standard NDA that is required for legal reasons. For the closed beta, there was a requirement to be nominated by a BMC sales person. This was to limit the number of participants to a manageable level during that initial period. You don't have to go through your BMC sales person for the open beta. Has anyone had specific issues getting into the open beta - i.e. have you applied and been turned away? -David J. Easter Sr. Product Manager, Solution Strategy and Development BMC Software, Inc. The opinions, statements, and/or suggested courses of action expressed in this E-mail do not necessarily reflect those of BMC Software, Inc. My voluntary participation in this forum is not intended to convey a role as a spokesperson, liaison or public relations representative for BMC Software, Inc. -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Carey Matthew Black Sent: Friday, October 10, 2008 4:58 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: AR System 7.5 (an open beta by any other name...) Alan, Maybe it is just me... but Open beta should not require me to get approved by the vendor. I should be able to go to their web site (like here: http://www.bmc.com/beta_program/public/available_betas.cfm) and get the software. Oh look... it is not just me Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_test#Beta Developers release either a closed beta or an open beta; closed beta versions are released to a select group of individuals for a user test, while open betas are to a larger community group, usually the general public. The testers report any bugs that they found and sometimes minor features they would like to see in the final version. But the article does go on to say this too... When a beta becomes available to the general public it is often widely used by the technologically savvy and those familiar with previous versions as though it were the finished product. Usually developers of freeware or open-source betas release them to the general public while proprietary betas go to a relatively small group of testers. Recipients of highly proprietary betas may have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. A release is called feature complete when the product team agrees that functional requirements of the system are met and no new features will be put into the release, but significant software bugs may still exist. Companies with a formal software process will tend to enter the beta period with a list of known bugs that must be fixed to exit the beta period, and some companies make this list available to customers and testers. So I guess what BMC means by Open beta must be more along the lines of the proprietary beta process. Which really sounds like a closed beta to me. (AKA: released to a select group of individuals for a user test) Maybe they will someday make the switch to an open beta and use their entire customer/partner base. Maybe they could do that in the form of a Patch site download? That should keep the faint of heart and the non-paying customers out of the beta. Shrug. I asked my sales rep to be included in the beta... then he left the company. So I guess my request to be in the Alpha/beta likely left with him. I is simply to hard to know when and how to request access to a closed beta. FWIW: In a very general way, I have these thoughts on Beta testing programs from any software manufacturer: I think the benefits of the closed beta programs are so limited to almost be self fulling prophesy for the company. If you only ask your customers that only use your OOB applications and they only test your OOB applications, then the company has a good shot at being able to do that same testing in Alpha and knowing the results before the beta starts. But that also means that you learned almost nothing by expending all of those resource outsourcing (to the customer) the testing that you have already done internally. However, if all of the existing customers were to test what they do with the product, then the company is likely to not have tested all of the strange and special ways that those crazy customers out there end up making the product fit
Re: AR System 7.5 (an open beta by any other name...)
It's not just you. Axton On Fri, Oct 10, 2008 at 7:58 AM, Carey Matthew Black [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Alan, Maybe it is just me... but Open beta should not require me to get approved by the vendor. I should be able to go to their web site (like here: http://www.bmc.com/beta_program/public/available_betas.cfm) and get the software. Oh look... it is not just me Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_test#Beta Developers release either a closed beta or an open beta; closed beta versions are released to a select group of individuals for a user test, while open betas are to a larger community group, usually the general public. The testers report any bugs that they found and sometimes minor features they would like to see in the final version. But the article does go on to say this too... When a beta becomes available to the general public it is often widely used by the technologically savvy and those familiar with previous versions as though it were the finished product. Usually developers of freeware or open-source betas release them to the general public while proprietary betas go to a relatively small group of testers. Recipients of highly proprietary betas may have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. A release is called feature complete when the product team agrees that functional requirements of the system are met and no new features will be put into the release, but significant software bugs may still exist. Companies with a formal software process will tend to enter the beta period with a list of known bugs that must be fixed to exit the beta period, and some companies make this list available to customers and testers. So I guess what BMC means by Open beta must be more along the lines of the proprietary beta process. Which really sounds like a closed beta to me. (AKA: released to a select group of individuals for a user test) Maybe they will someday make the switch to an open beta and use their entire customer/partner base. Maybe they could do that in the form of a Patch site download? That should keep the faint of heart and the non-paying customers out of the beta. Shrug. I asked my sales rep to be included in the beta... then he left the company. So I guess my request to be in the Alpha/beta likely left with him. I is simply to hard to know when and how to request access to a closed beta. FWIW: In a very general way, I have these thoughts on Beta testing programs from any software manufacturer: I think the benefits of the closed beta programs are so limited to almost be self fulling prophesy for the company. If you only ask your customers that only use your OOB applications and they only test your OOB applications, then the company has a good shot at being able to do that same testing in Alpha and knowing the results before the beta starts. But that also means that you learned almost nothing by expending all of those resource outsourcing (to the customer) the testing that you have already done internally. However, if all of the existing customers were to test what they do with the product, then the company is likely to not have tested all of the strange and special ways that those crazy customers out there end up making the product fit that square hole problem. And trust me the crazy customers want/need to test the next version because they know that they are pushing the envelope of the product and are on the (often) bleeding edge of the tech. So those testers are more likely to participate than the just OOB customers anyway. However those crazy customers will likely result in more known issues/bugs and a decrease in customer confidence due to the well known broken state of the next version. That hurts sales of the new version and thus hurts the company. So the company decides to keep the beta testers more exclusive to avoid the pain points and to try to keep the customers happy with the non-existent experience instead of satisfied with the quality of the product that they used in the testing program. But maybe it is just me. Maybe some day when I am running my own software company :) -- Carey Matthew Black Remedy Skilled Professional (RSP) ARS = Action Request System(Remedy) Love, then teach Solution = People + Process + Tools Fast, Accurate, Cheap Pick two. On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 3:09 PM, Alan Blake [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: ** The open BETA started beginning of Sept. You can send an inquiry here [EMAIL PROTECTED] Alan snip - Original Message From: Alan Blake [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Sent: Thursday, October 9, 2008 12:26:58 PM Subject: Re: AR System 7.5 ** The BETA test is still underway. I understood they are targeting early next year. Alan ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor: www.rmsportal.com ARSlist:
Re: AR System 7.5 (an open beta by any other name...)
Anyone who has ever worked with their packaged applications can see the results. Axton On Fri, Oct 10, 2008 at 9:30 AM, Axton [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: It's not just you. Axton On Fri, Oct 10, 2008 at 7:58 AM, Carey Matthew Black [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Alan, Maybe it is just me... but Open beta should not require me to get approved by the vendor. I should be able to go to their web site (like here: http://www.bmc.com/beta_program/public/available_betas.cfm) and get the software. Oh look... it is not just me Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_test#Beta Developers release either a closed beta or an open beta; closed beta versions are released to a select group of individuals for a user test, while open betas are to a larger community group, usually the general public. The testers report any bugs that they found and sometimes minor features they would like to see in the final version. But the article does go on to say this too... When a beta becomes available to the general public it is often widely used by the technologically savvy and those familiar with previous versions as though it were the finished product. Usually developers of freeware or open-source betas release them to the general public while proprietary betas go to a relatively small group of testers. Recipients of highly proprietary betas may have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. A release is called feature complete when the product team agrees that functional requirements of the system are met and no new features will be put into the release, but significant software bugs may still exist. Companies with a formal software process will tend to enter the beta period with a list of known bugs that must be fixed to exit the beta period, and some companies make this list available to customers and testers. So I guess what BMC means by Open beta must be more along the lines of the proprietary beta process. Which really sounds like a closed beta to me. (AKA: released to a select group of individuals for a user test) Maybe they will someday make the switch to an open beta and use their entire customer/partner base. Maybe they could do that in the form of a Patch site download? That should keep the faint of heart and the non-paying customers out of the beta. Shrug. I asked my sales rep to be included in the beta... then he left the company. So I guess my request to be in the Alpha/beta likely left with him. I is simply to hard to know when and how to request access to a closed beta. FWIW: In a very general way, I have these thoughts on Beta testing programs from any software manufacturer: I think the benefits of the closed beta programs are so limited to almost be self fulling prophesy for the company. If you only ask your customers that only use your OOB applications and they only test your OOB applications, then the company has a good shot at being able to do that same testing in Alpha and knowing the results before the beta starts. But that also means that you learned almost nothing by expending all of those resource outsourcing (to the customer) the testing that you have already done internally. However, if all of the existing customers were to test what they do with the product, then the company is likely to not have tested all of the strange and special ways that those crazy customers out there end up making the product fit that square hole problem. And trust me the crazy customers want/need to test the next version because they know that they are pushing the envelope of the product and are on the (often) bleeding edge of the tech. So those testers are more likely to participate than the just OOB customers anyway. However those crazy customers will likely result in more known issues/bugs and a decrease in customer confidence due to the well known broken state of the next version. That hurts sales of the new version and thus hurts the company. So the company decides to keep the beta testers more exclusive to avoid the pain points and to try to keep the customers happy with the non-existent experience instead of satisfied with the quality of the product that they used in the testing program. But maybe it is just me. Maybe some day when I am running my own software company :) -- Carey Matthew Black Remedy Skilled Professional (RSP) ARS = Action Request System(Remedy) Love, then teach Solution = People + Process + Tools Fast, Accurate, Cheap Pick two. On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 3:09 PM, Alan Blake [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: ** The open BETA started beginning of Sept. You can send an inquiry here [EMAIL PROTECTED] Alan snip - Original Message From: Alan Blake [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Sent: Thursday, October 9, 2008 12:26:58 PM Subject: Re: AR System 7.5 ** The BETA test is still underway. I understood they are targeting early next year. Alan
Re: AR System 7.5 (an open beta by any other name...)
Nope... not just you at all. David M Clark Remedy Programmer/Analyst Axton [EMAIL PROTECTED] 10/10/2008 8:30 AM It's not just you. Axton On Fri, Oct 10, 2008 at 7:58 AM, Carey Matthew Black [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Alan, Maybe it is just me... but Open beta should not require me to get approved by the vendor. I should be able to go to their web site (like here: http://www.bmc.com/beta_program/public/available_betas.cfm) and get the software. Oh look... it is not just me Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_test#Beta Developers release either a closed beta or an open beta; closed beta versions are released to a select group of individuals for a user test, while open betas are to a larger community group, usually the general public. The testers report any bugs that they found and sometimes minor features they would like to see in the final version. But the article does go on to say this too... When a beta becomes available to the general public it is often widely used by the technologically savvy and those familiar with previous versions as though it were the finished product. Usually developers of freeware or open-source betas release them to the general public while proprietary betas go to a relatively small group of testers. Recipients of highly proprietary betas may have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. A release is called feature complete when the product team agrees that functional requirements of the system are met and no new features will be put into the release, but significant software bugs may still exist. Companies with a formal software process will tend to enter the beta period with a list of known bugs that must be fixed to exit the beta period, and some companies make this list available to customers and testers. So I guess what BMC means by Open beta must be more along the lines of the proprietary beta process. Which really sounds like a closed beta to me. (AKA: released to a select group of individuals for a user test) Maybe they will someday make the switch to an open beta and use their entire customer/partner base. Maybe they could do that in the form of a Patch site download? That should keep the faint of heart and the non-paying customers out of the beta. Shrug. I asked my sales rep to be included in the beta... then he left the company. So I guess my request to be in the Alpha/beta likely left with him. I is simply to hard to know when and how to request access to a closed beta. FWIW: In a very general way, I have these thoughts on Beta testing programs from any software manufacturer: I think the benefits of the closed beta programs are so limited to almost be self fulling prophesy for the company. If you only ask your customers that only use your OOB applications and they only test your OOB applications, then the company has a good shot at being able to do that same testing in Alpha and knowing the results before the beta starts. But that also means that you learned almost nothing by expending all of those resource outsourcing (to the customer) the testing that you have already done internally. However, if all of the existing customers were to test what they do with the product, then the company is likely to not have tested all of the strange and special ways that those crazy customers out there end up making the product fit that square hole problem. And trust me the crazy customers want/need to test the next version because they know that they are pushing the envelope of the product and are on the (often) bleeding edge of the tech. So those testers are more likely to participate than the just OOB customers anyway. However those crazy customers will likely result in more known issues/bugs and a decrease in customer confidence due to the well known broken state of the next version. That hurts sales of the new version and thus hurts the company. So the company decides to keep the beta testers more exclusive to avoid the pain points and to try to keep the customers happy with the non-existent experience instead of satisfied with the quality of the product that they used in the testing program. But maybe it is just me. Maybe some day when I am running my own software company :) -- Carey Matthew Black Remedy Skilled Professional (RSP) ARS = Action Request System(Remedy) Love, then teach Solution = People + Process + Tools Fast, Accurate, Cheap Pick two. On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 3:09 PM, Alan Blake [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: ** The open BETA started beginning of Sept. You can send an inquiry here [EMAIL PROTECTED] Alan snip - Original Message From: Alan Blake [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Sent: Thursday, October 9, 2008 12:26:58 PM Subject: Re: AR System 7.5 ** The BETA test is still underway. I understood they are targeting early next year. Alan
Re: AR System 7.5 (an open beta by any other name...)
Alan, Maybe it is just me... but Open beta should not require me to get approved by the vendor. I should be able to go to their web site (like here: http://www.bmc.com/beta_program/public/available_betas.cfm) and get the software. Oh look... it is not just me Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_test#Beta Developers release either a closed beta or an open beta; closed beta versions are released to a select group of individuals for a user test, while open betas are to a larger community group, usually the general public. The testers report any bugs that they found and sometimes minor features they would like to see in the final version. But the article does go on to say this too... When a beta becomes available to the general public it is often widely used by the technologically savvy and those familiar with previous versions as though it were the finished product. Usually developers of freeware or open-source betas release them to the general public while proprietary betas go to a relatively small group of testers. Recipients of highly proprietary betas may have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. A release is called feature complete when the product team agrees that functional requirements of the system are met and no new features will be put into the release, but significant software bugs may still exist. Companies with a formal software process will tend to enter the beta period with a list of known bugs that must be fixed to exit the beta period, and some companies make this list available to customers and testers. So I guess what BMC means by Open beta must be more along the lines of the proprietary beta process. Which really sounds like a closed beta to me. (AKA: released to a select group of individuals for a user test) Maybe they will someday make the switch to an open beta and use their entire customer/partner base. Maybe they could do that in the form of a Patch site download? That should keep the faint of heart and the non-paying customers out of the beta. Shrug. I asked my sales rep to be included in the beta... then he left the company. So I guess my request to be in the Alpha/beta likely left with him. I is simply to hard to know when and how to request access to a closed beta. FWIW: In a very general way, I have these thoughts on Beta testing programs from any software manufacturer: I think the benefits of the closed beta programs are so limited to almost be self fulling prophesy for the company. If you only ask your customers that only use your OOB applications and they only test your OOB applications, then the company has a good shot at being able to do that same testing in Alpha and knowing the results before the beta starts. But that also means that you learned almost nothing by expending all of those resource outsourcing (to the customer) the testing that you have already done internally. However, if all of the existing customers were to test what they do with the product, then the company is likely to not have tested all of the strange and special ways that those crazy customers out there end up making the product fit that square hole problem. And trust me the crazy customers want/need to test the next version because they know that they are pushing the envelope of the product and are on the (often) bleeding edge of the tech. So those testers are more likely to participate than the just OOB customers anyway. However those crazy customers will likely result in more known issues/bugs and a decrease in customer confidence due to the well known broken state of the next version. That hurts sales of the new version and thus hurts the company. So the company decides to keep the beta testers more exclusive to avoid the pain points and to try to keep the customers happy with the non-existent experience instead of satisfied with the quality of the product that they used in the testing program. But maybe it is just me. Maybe some day when I am running my own software company :) -- Carey Matthew Black Remedy Skilled Professional (RSP) ARS = Action Request System(Remedy) Love, then teach Solution = People + Process + Tools Fast, Accurate, Cheap Pick two. On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 3:09 PM, Alan Blake [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: ** The open BETA started beginning of Sept. You can send an inquiry here [EMAIL PROTECTED] Alan snip - Original Message From: Alan Blake [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Sent: Thursday, October 9, 2008 12:26:58 PM Subject: Re: AR System 7.5 ** The BETA test is still underway. I understood they are targeting early next year. Alan ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor: www.rmsportal.com ARSlist: Where the Answers Are
Re: AR System 7.5 (an open beta by any other name...)
I agree. I saw the opportunity and got enrolled very easily. -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Axton Sent: Friday, October 10, 2008 7:30 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: AR System 7.5 (an open beta by any other name...) It's not just you. Axton On Fri, Oct 10, 2008 at 7:58 AM, Carey Matthew Black [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Alan, Maybe it is just me... but Open beta should not require me to get approved by the vendor. I should be able to go to their web site (like here: http://www.bmc.com/beta_program/public/available_betas.cfm) and get the software. Oh look... it is not just me Ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beta_test#Beta Developers release either a closed beta or an open beta; closed beta versions are released to a select group of individuals for a user test, while open betas are to a larger community group, usually the general public. The testers report any bugs that they found and sometimes minor features they would like to see in the final version. But the article does go on to say this too... When a beta becomes available to the general public it is often widely used by the technologically savvy and those familiar with previous versions as though it were the finished product. Usually developers of freeware or open-source betas release them to the general public while proprietary betas go to a relatively small group of testers. Recipients of highly proprietary betas may have to sign a non-disclosure agreement. A release is called feature complete when the product team agrees that functional requirements of the system are met and no new features will be put into the release, but significant software bugs may still exist. Companies with a formal software process will tend to enter the beta period with a list of known bugs that must be fixed to exit the beta period, and some companies make this list available to customers and testers. So I guess what BMC means by Open beta must be more along the lines of the proprietary beta process. Which really sounds like a closed beta to me. (AKA: released to a select group of individuals for a user test) Maybe they will someday make the switch to an open beta and use their entire customer/partner base. Maybe they could do that in the form of a Patch site download? That should keep the faint of heart and the non-paying customers out of the beta. Shrug. I asked my sales rep to be included in the beta... then he left the company. So I guess my request to be in the Alpha/beta likely left with him. I is simply to hard to know when and how to request access to a closed beta. FWIW: In a very general way, I have these thoughts on Beta testing programs from any software manufacturer: I think the benefits of the closed beta programs are so limited to almost be self fulling prophesy for the company. If you only ask your customers that only use your OOB applications and they only test your OOB applications, then the company has a good shot at being able to do that same testing in Alpha and knowing the results before the beta starts. But that also means that you learned almost nothing by expending all of those resource outsourcing (to the customer) the testing that you have already done internally. However, if all of the existing customers were to test what they do with the product, then the company is likely to not have tested all of the strange and special ways that those crazy customers out there end up making the product fit that square hole problem. And trust me the crazy customers want/need to test the next version because they know that they are pushing the envelope of the product and are on the (often) bleeding edge of the tech. So those testers are more likely to participate than the just OOB customers anyway. However those crazy customers will likely result in more known issues/bugs and a decrease in customer confidence due to the well known broken state of the next version. That hurts sales of the new version and thus hurts the company. So the company decides to keep the beta testers more exclusive to avoid the pain points and to try to keep the customers happy with the non-existent experience instead of satisfied with the quality of the product that they used in the testing program. But maybe it is just me. Maybe some day when I am running my own software company :) -- Carey Matthew Black Remedy Skilled Professional (RSP) ARS = Action Request System(Remedy) Love, then teach Solution = People + Process + Tools Fast, Accurate, Cheap Pick two. On Thu, Oct 9, 2008 at 3:09 PM, Alan Blake [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: ** The open BETA started beginning of Sept. You can send an inquiry here [EMAIL PROTECTED] Alan snip - Original Message From: Alan Blake [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Sent: Thursday, October 9, 2008 12:26:58 PM
