Alpha Certification

Alpha certification by QA means that software is testable by customers under the controlled environment of the features described in the Requirements.

Phase: Alpha

Purpose: Present fully functional product to customers for testing.

Entry Criteria
• All Showstoppers and Alpha defects thrashed till specified number of days prior to the publication of the build must be fixed.
• Defects which are dependent on external implementation should have possible fix dates.
• All Defects fixed in the prior build of Alpha candidate should have appropriate action taken on them.
• UI Specification is complete and accepted by PM, QA and R&D.
• Customer Pre-Release Documentations like What to test, Known Issues, New Features is completed.
• Help Files should be launched within the application.
• Configuration Documents are defined and reviewed by stakeholders.
• All test plans reviewed and approved by R&D and PM. Final draft of DIT in progress or sent for review.
• UI implementation should be ready for pixel perfect review.
• All localization changes should have been completed.
• All workflows are defined, reviewed and accepted by stakeholders.

Activities
• Acceptance testing according to following criteria:
• Successful execution of Build Acceptance tests i.e. Smoke test and Manual test.
• Acceptance results shall be published within 1 working day after receiving the Alpha build.
• Regress all OpenForQA bugs fixed for the Accepted Alpha build after publishing the Acceptance test results.
• Regress all Fixed/NLI Showstoppers and Alpha defects.
• Automated Focus Results should not report any new Showstoppers and Alpha defects or result in reopening of the closed ones.
• QA shall execute structured tests on the Alpha candidate build and the result will be updated on shared location.
• Execute all the identified workflows.

Exit Criteria
• The Activities described above have been completed.
• If any Showstopper or Alpha defect is rejected, the build cannot be certified as Alpha. However, for a rejected defect with lower priority, the decision to certify the product shall be that of the Triage team.

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