And many a project manager sees the testing phase as a perfect opportunity to make up for lost time and schedule overruns. Eliminating or compressing the pilot or beta cycles may seem like a good idea but resist the temptation. Both phases have differing objectives and the prospect of entirely different outcomes Your friendly pilot testers are there to determine if the development world bears any resemblance to the production wireless environment. Odds are there will be differences. Don t forget, even the weather affects wireless signals and ultimately your application.
Beta testing goes one step further and involves actual target users.
It s where you hope Murphy s Law comes into play because if there was ever a time for something to go wrong, better now than later. It allows your potential users to be as excited and pleased with the final product as you were with the original concept. Underestimating The Real World Challenges - Planning for deployment and support of your application is one of the last steps before getting it out the door. It s often the final opportunity to anticipate, identify and lay the groundwork for future application changes. Logistics play a key role in the deployment process and if it s your first time through you re bound to underestimate the complexity, time and effort involved.