Layne has been struggling with upgrading Community Server beta 1 to 2. It’s been a rough road. From afar it looks like Beta 1 was more of an alpha than a beta. I’m not sure here, but quite often this is a common predicament.
A developer who I’ve learned lots from once pointed out to me the foils of “beta inflation.” Branding a project beta too early can give everyone a false sense that things are farther along than they really are. This can make it particularly challenging to manage product development–especially when it’s about time to release a product.
His advice: Demote release labels.
Call a prototype a “proof of concept.” Label an alpha a “prototype”. Call a beta an “alpha.” And think of the first release candidate as a beta. When you get near the end of the product development cycle, you can collapse the naming thereby making it seem–at least internally–that the project is moving quickly from development to commercial product. It’s quite an interesting strategy–maybe a bit too developer-empowered–but one I think about when I’m planning product releases.