Originally posted by TweetyBird
But in general (not just AHII), programs that are not far past the design phase are presented as beta, and the term is pretty much losing its meaning. At one time, beta was a stage where the program was pretty much finished and leftover bugs were being worked out by users pushing the program and trying to crash it. Obviously, its no longer like that and programs that would have been considered in design or alpha stages are presented as beta. So don't be too hard on the people that expect more from beta. The term has a different meaning now. Some accept it (mostly accountants 
), and some don't. Both positions have merit.
I agree.. the term beta has been greatly distorted over the years.
the companies I've work for follow a different process...
"Beta" is the phase of development that is delivered after a project reaches "code complete"
Code complete is the point in time when all features have been coded - not necessarily working correctly.
No other features will be added to the product, - no changes to the User interface, no "wouldn't it be cool to make it do this!" feature added just before release.
The goal of Beta is to fix all bugs related to coded features and to make the product releasable.
Any software distributed prior to Code Complete is considered "Alpha."
Software distributed to test technological feasibility... such as frame rates, collisions, graphic engines, etc is considered "Prototyping."
Does it matter what the terms mean? No.
In my lexicon of programming terms.. I would consider AHII in the Alpha/prototyping phrase.
It doesn't matter... they'll get it working well...
Just remember in software the real version always end in ".1"
