Software QA Testing Question:

(1)Acceptance testing performed by the customer in a live application of the software, at one or more end user sites, in an environment not controlled by the developer.
(2) For medical device software such use may require an Investigational Device Exemption [IDE] or Institutional Review Board [IRB] approval.
Testing conducted at one or more end user sites by the end user of a delivered software product or system.

Beta testing is testing an application when development and testing are essentially completed and final bugs and problems need to be found before the final release. Beta testing is typically performed by end-users or others, not programmers, software engineers, or test engineers.

Following alpha testing, "beta versions" of the software are released to a group of people, and limited public tests are performed, so that further testing can ensure the product has few bugs. Other times, beta versions are made available to the general public, in order to receive as much feedback as possible. The goal is to benefit the maximum number of future users.