This involves extra work because one should not abandon current operating procedures during a testing period. The tester tries to find typical work problems to solve with the product. One also tries to thwart it to see how it responds under worst-case scenarios. This can include doing long, complicated, time-consuming searches that require all of an application's resources. It also includes trying to think of ways novices might abuse the system.
Testers also try to find difficult problems to solve with the system.
They look for problems for which solutions may not be available from other sources or which would be very time consuming to solve with other tools. It also involves comparing results with the various alternatives. Beta testers should also try to push the technology or the application to its limits. They should try to find new uses and applications for products. While the programmers have a set of functions that they want the product to perform, users often approach tasks with different assumptions or have different needs that they attempt to satisfy with the product.