The City - Alpha

Being a big fan of the Greek language, I’ve always got a kick out of the fact that alot of software teams like to use Greek letters to designate how ready their product is for prime time. For those not familiar with it, let me give you a quick run down on what each of the stages of product development looks like..in a somewhat unofficial manner:

In Development (pre-Alpha) - This is the first stage of a project’s life cycle and can range anywhere from, “I had an idea for this thing and I’ll work on it some day” to “we’ve started to hack out some code and test the waters with this concept.” You’ll often hear of something being, “in development” which may or may not mean it will ever see the light of day. For instance, The City has been “in development” up until now. Not all of the features have been written; it’s really wet cement.

Alpha - A wonderful Greek letter (the beginning of the alphabet naturally), that indicates the first “real” release of a project (generally to testers, which in web app parlance means your friends). In this stage, new features and bugs are found as often as the system crashes, (ie. daily). It’s a stage where the etch-a-sketch can be shaken up and the screen reset anytime as the project is definitely in flux. Generally an “Alpha” is released in a very controlled fashion, as system stability, performance, and other factors can jeopardize public opinion if it’s too open.

Beta - The second letter in the alphabet and the next step for a project, it generally designates a more stable environment and a much more open invitation policy. This is when the press releases go out and the buzz starts to build, as more and more people are experiencing the project and can comment positively or negatively about what they see. Being “in Beta” is actually quite nice from a software perspective because you aren’t actually done, so it’s ok to be rough around the edges. Some companies like to stick the “Beta” label on their products indefinitely, kind of like a warm security blanket for the project manager.

General Release - The golden copy is ready to ship and the project is done. This doesn’t happen with web applications in the same way as, say, Office 2008, but there’s still a point where pretty much everything is good to go and the Beta sticker can be taken off.

Last night, The City went Alpha.