What is beta testing?

[G7USL 117]

>P.S. please dont harrass them, let them work!!!I wasn't intending too, I was just asking a question out of interest in the PMDG Beta Testers and the upcoming queen?Why do you pre-judge me, this is the first thread I have posted on regarding the 744?Dave T. .........On the lovely warm Devon Riviera and active 'FlightSim User's Group' member at http://www.flightsimgrpuk.free-online.co.uk/

[michal 44]

>How does someone that has never flew a real '747' to the>limits call themselves a 'beta' tester?Sounds like you have never been on an aircraft beta test team. There is no guarantee, even with 'real' pilots that these pilots will do their 'duty'. I have seen real pilots getting either quickly disinterested or for whatever reason stopping providing any meaningful input during the testing. Sometimes they start very enthused but abandon the effort when their faviorite bugs are not fixed quickly. Beta testing can be a hard work and some just are not up to it or their business and family matters simply take most of their focus. So what you do to protect yourself you assemble a group of people some real pilots, some not real pilots but quite knowledgable in the area, some just FS enthusiasts and you hope that this diversified talent will get the job done. It is never a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket ...Michael J.WinXP-Home SP2,AMD64 3500+,Abit AV8,Radeon X800Pro,36GB Raptor,1GB PC3200,Audigy 2http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpghttp://www.hifisim.com/images/asv_beta_member.jpg

[Guest pellelil]

As Michael says you need a lot of different people. Offcause its extreemly helpfull to have real-life piots/maintanence crew on your Beta teams because they can tell you a lot about those things you can't find in manuals/publications and offcause they have the everyday hands-on experience as well. However when testing software (in this case a plane) you also need people to test other things than if the plane feels/fly correct, if the displays are showing what they should. Also you need to see if the plane installes as it should on various PCs (different language setups / different OS versions) if the menu interface (within the MSFS menu) is working, if there is any problems with the 3D model (remember fighting bleedthroughts while making scenery for FS98 ), and all kind of other stuff that real-life pilots is not the best to test. So a mixed team ensures you have talent in variuos areas and the task is to split up the workload to you use the right people to test the various aspects of the software. I seams that PMDG has collected a "Killer Team", and I am sure they will do their best to ensure the rest of us get a product that is great in every aspect.http://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/747400.jpgPelle F. S. Liljendal