Question

How can I identify products and their characteristics that resemble the alpha, beta and chi models? Thanks in advance.

FOR EXAMPLE: 1. Microsoft’s Office Products which resembles chi;

2. AMAZON -- at one point, Amazon considered cloud services to be its beta product;

3. Mondalez’s Oreo cookies could be an alpha.

Answer 1

In Computing, especially in Software Engineering, specifically in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), and more specifically in the software release life cycle:

How products and their characteristics that resemble the alpha, beta and chi models are identified in detail:
In general, these are the products and their characteristics that go through these different alpha, beta and chi models phases or stages in their lifecycle, from their ideas, innovation, design, development, creation, manufacturing, implementation, deployment, testing, release, usage, continuous improvement, de-provisioning, depreciation, sunset, and becoming obsolete or end-of-life with no support.

The alpha phase or stage is the first phase in the software release life cycle to begin software testing. Software developers, in this phase, generally test the software and they use white-box techniques for this purpose. Later, black-box or gray-box techniques are followed and used for additional validation. The alpha release is the phase when the software is moved to black-box testing inside the organization.

Alpha software would not be thoroughly tested by developers before it is released to customers, and hence it would not have all features planned for the final version; would have feature-freeze, indicating software will have no more features added, hence feature-complete; would have serious errors; would be unstable; and causes crashes or data loss.

The beta test comes after alpha test, i.e., after acceptance testing, and immediately before to software product's general release.

It is uncommon, alpha software would be externally available in proprietary software. On the other hand, open-source software would have alpha versions that are available publicly.

These three alpha, beta, and chi models are called the different stages or phases of a product or software product in its manufacturing, software release life cycle. These are considered as the stages of software product development. First comes alpha, and next, the beta phase. These are the terminologies used in the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), especially in software testing, and release cycles.

A user, end-user, customer can identify the products and its characteristics resembling a beta model, as he or she would experience a lot of issues while using the product or software. It would not work at some point, for some unknown reason, due to specification or compatibility issues, unprepared inputs would result in unexpected results, would experience intermittent functioning or working conditions, bugs, errors, glitches, navigation issues, fatal errors, etc.

Any product or software released by an individual developer or company, vendor, etc would definitely announce informing and clearly stating the new product would be released as a beta version and they expect a lot of feedback, advice, ideas, and suggestion from the public, customers, or users.

Alpha test phase or stage is considered as the verification of a new product or software before the public announcement or release, making it available to the people to use it.

The beta test phase or stage is the verification of a product or software before releasing it to be manufactured.

Chi test phase or stage is the final test carried out before the product's general availability to the public, client, customers, users, or end-users.

Alpha test terminology model, stage, or phase is used to refer to the pre-announcement test, and the beta test terminology model, stage, or phase is to refer showing the product is ready for its general availability to the public, client, or customer.

In some scenarios, situations, environments, or for specific products or software, "beta test" refers to "testing" done by customers.

Amazon company, at one point, had their cloud services (which is now Amazon Web Services or AWS) as its beta product, as they were still testing the product or service, before they completely made it available to the general public with the full version. They had only the idea and had implemented the AWS cloud platform, had that in beta phase before its actual and final release, and first used it for their own Amazon (Book service) company data center, and finally made it available to other companies to use their data centers (virtually), making it generally available.

Alpha test products in this stage or phase can be considered as commodity-like as, with its product characteristics commodity which would have fewer chances for differentiation. The product at this stage would have a relatively high market price sensitivity. The impact of its development (process) improves internal efficiencies which reduces production unit cost.

On the other hand, customers using it come back for issues. There is no intrinsic growth. Its important success factors are, managing expenses carefully, there are still process development and avoids price clashes.

Beta products or software are new products that are still in development with the potential launch. Its price sensitivity is unknown, however there would be a starting price announced or published. The impact of its development is, it requires more development before it is launched, released, or made generally available. There could and would be early adopter customers in certain numbers, eagerly waiting for the product's release or launch. The rest of the people may not want to use the beta version, in fact, the actual or final launch of the product in the first place.

Market research, surveys, and news would indicate a certain number of early adopters who want the product now. Those who risk themselves in the product would say, it is booming. Those who are risk averters would say it is moderate, or an "okay" product. Its important success factors and characteristics would be, it should be built with the right capacity. Its price should be based on the actual existing market conditions and should forecast realistically.

Chi phase or stage products are cash cow products.
* Its product characteristics are that it is complex to understand, use, etc, and is rich in features, and has chances for product differentiation.
2. Its price sensitivity is relatively low.
3. The impact of its development is, it provides the features resulting in improved features and functions.
4. Customers using the product are very demanding. They expect the latest and greatest product, technologies, and features. They are loyal to the vendor, merchant, or company that provides them what they are looking for.
5. The product's growth projection is low.
6. Its important success factor is, it balances expenses with value and price.