Editorial: The State of Microsoft Beta Programs

Before I kick off this editorial let me just state that I am no big-time tester and I haven’t even participated in a Windows beta (yet), but I do have some knowledge about such beta programs, I have people who may be considered “big-time” testers that I regularly talk to, and at the moment I’m participating in both the Microsoft Office 2010 Technical Beta and the Office 2010 Technical Preview, which is really the catalyst for me writing this article. Also, let me state that this is my personal opinion, and I am not representing the GeekSmack staff or community members.

To me, it seems as though the quality of Microsoft beta programs is really starting to decrease with every program they run. In some cases, testers feel as though they’re picking the worst feature suggestions and not implementing the ones that the majority want, and in other cases beta programs seriously lack build drops that would allow the testers to see the progress of their bug reports and iron out any new bugs that may surface from new feature additions and any under the hood code changes.

I don’t know who here remembers, but I participated in the Windows Live Messenger 9 beta last year or so, and an overwhelming amount of suggestions were marked as “Won’t Fix”. It seemed as though the WLM team jumped with joy when a suggestion to make winks even more annoying then they already are came about, but features that would really make WLM better such as tabbed browsing were left in the dark and not implemented.

More recently, with the Windows 7 beta and now the Office 2010 Technical Beta (not the preview, but the beta), people aren’t all too happy about the lack of build drops. Back in the Vista days, testers got CTP builds to play around with whereas this time around Windows 7 testers only got the Beta and RC builds—the same builds that were given out to the public. And now, with the Office 2010 betas, the team seems uptight and closed-minded to the very thought of handing out additional build drops. The build given out is 4006, while the build that leaked recently is build 4302, meaning that there’s a gap of 296 builds!

Now I understand where Microsoft is coming from, as getting builds ready for release to testers is a time-consuming task that will prolong the development time, which is the case with the Windows 7 as we clarified a few months ago, but it’s seriously worth it, especially when more and more changes are made to the software causing more bugs to be present. Perhaps if testers got more builds to examine and squash bugs in, more features could be implemented smoothly as well.

If connect testers in programs for Microsoft’s two most important pieces of software, Office and Windows don’t get any builds the public doesn’t get, then what’s the point in having such an exclusive program to begin with? You guys might as well shut down Connect and just get public feedback if this approach to the betas spread to more and more programs. Microsoft Connect has a great member base with many skilled people in the field, so please utilize them to their full potential and benefit from what they have to offer.

Now don’t get me wrong, I know that Microsoft is inundated with feedback and suggestions from all fronts whenever a product is being developed, and I’m not asking them to view every single submission and personally reply to the person thanking them, but I’m just saying that the Connect betas are deteriorating and they can really be MUCH better—I mean isn’t the point Connect exists is to gather feedback and suggestions mainly from a good number of IT Pros, enthusiasts, and others that are skilled in the field and passionate about Windows and Microsoft software?

Does anyone have anything to add to this, or do you disagree? I’d definitely like to hear from other Connect testers regarding my opinions stated in this article, and I’d seriously like to hear how this new approach to the Connect betas is good. Better yet, I’d like to see comments from program managers, etc. on this.

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