Alpha Testing
Alpha testing is internal testing performed by an organization's own employees — often a dedicated QA team — before software is released to any outside users. It happens in a controlled environment and aims to catch major functional issues before the product goes anywhere near real customers.
Alpha testing typically follows system testing and precedes beta testing, forming a progression: internal testers first (alpha), then a limited external group (beta), then general release. Because it's internal, alpha testing can use pre-production environments freely and rely on testers who already understand the product deeply.
The tradeoff is real-world blindness: internal testers, however rigorous, use the product differently than actual customers do, on different devices, with different expectations. That gap is exactly what beta testing exists to close.
