You have asked "What is involved when beta testing?"
The following is a basic list of functionality and testing which would need to occur:-
- Any error messages received are reported including non-existent pages found
- During the testing period did the tester ever receive the "Catch All" error message
- Load testing by having all 50 beta testers posting at the same time
- All forums are used to ensure they are all running the same way
- Check some of the new functionality, the most important new feature is when you start a new thread it asks on some forums (BUT not all) if it is a question or discussion. If it is a question, once an an accepted answer has been noted it is marked and will appear next to the question.
- Test the new and improved search facility
- Use all facilities available to the different user levels. Gold members have access to all facilities whereas some (a few) facilities are not available for Bronze users, hence it is important that beta testers are from all levels not just Gold.
- The need to check uploading of images and other files either inline or in teh media section.
- General functionality, but do remember that the forum layout is different from the current forum. Some people will love it others may not.
- The new forum also has blogs and Wiki's for test as well
Not a full list, but gives an idea what we are trying to achieve with this testing which I am targetting to start on Saturday 4th February 2012 and I am proposing that the beta test period should last for up to two weeks