Is beta testing really necessary?

Following are four reasons that justify the necessity of performing beta testing:

1. Enhancing the quality of the product: Beta testing is basically performed to ensure that a product is of high quality and fully functional. All the product features are meticulously tested to ascertain whether it is working as per the set expectations. Though additional and relevant features can be added up at a later stage, but the design must be simple to understand, otherwise user experience will not be at par, and the quality of the product gets affected. At the later stages of beta testing, it would be wise to collect feature feedback and also observe and document how users are using these features, which will, in turn, benefit the product owner.
2. Identifying and fixing bugs judiciously: One of the main reasons why beta testing is conducted is to know if there are any bugs left in the product. Because once the product is launched in the market with bugs, then the obvious will happen. Through this testing method, bugs are identified and are fixed at the earliest. Bug detection techniques can be incorporated to ease the process of finding bugs on the condition that there are no bugs involved after testing and other relevant activities are properly performed.
3. Analyzing the performance of the product: The performance and speed of the product are analyzed by conducting beta tests. A lab network can be set up in a virtual environment and various automated testing scenarios can run, but still, it may not always be the way a user tests the product. Hence, real users should be recruited and then given the responsibility to test the product in a real-time environment and provide feedback about the performance of the product.
4. Understanding the product’s usability: A customer or user will appreciate the working of the software if it’s usable. To do this, the target audience should be gathered and come up with proper solutions. This will in turn provide a way to solve the specific problems of the audience. When beta testing is conducted, the experience of a user in terms of using software is gathered in the form of feedback and thus further worked upon to improve or modify the product.