To Beta or Not to Beta?

We upgraded to Jive Clearspace 2.5 in August, when it was still in beta. We were in the midst of a proof of concept trial and wanted to evaluate all of the new features offered in 2.5, since there were many powerful and appealing enhancements.

Even though it was supposed to be a "very stable" beta version, we found some pretty annoying and disabling bugs. We reported them, we worked around them, and then we rejoiced when the production version was released in September. No more bugs!

Not so fast... we found more bugs, we reported them, and we worked around them. We rejoiced again when we upgraded to release 2.5.3. At long last, no more bugs!

Not so fast... we keep finding more bugs, we report them and we work around them. Granted, the bugs are fewer and much less critical, although they are still darned annoying.

So, the lesson I have learned is, no more beta releases. I don't regret going with beta in our particular situation. It was the right decision and the enhanced features cemented buy-in and acceptance from our testers and the many users who have followed. But the bugs have hurt adoption, too, as well as eaten up way too much of my time.

I can't wait until all the bugs have been exterminated and we have a 100% stable system. And once we do, it's going to be awfully hard to get me to give it up. We'll go from being early adopters to wait-and-see laggards. Let someone else squish all the bugs for us next time.