Seven Excuses to Avoid Going Through an Internal Beta Program

Seroquel overdose There are many benefits to an internal beta — a (mostly) forgiving audience,  a simple distribution mechanism,  easy to get feedback (you got their email address already…), etc. However, if you do not believe in early feedback and incremental development, here is my free advice on what you can say to avoid going through it :

1. I am “focused” on “paying” customers.

(Let internal users safely use your competitor’s products)

2. I am busy with the next release/patch/etc

(Who needs even more bugs to fix before ship date?)

3. My Beta project manager is sick/on holiday/focused on.. (see above)

(Clever… no one will offer you more “resources” anyway)

4. I do not have time to explain how my application works

(…and they will not understand it anyway)

5. I will be inundated with feature requests/bug reports/questions and I am busy with… (see above)

6. My application is not suitable for internal use

(Let them use competitor’s products if they are so brave…)

and the best:

7. It’s not documented in my personal objectives for this year