Patent ID: 8688491

Claim:
A method comprising: providing, using a computing device and over a network, access to an on-demand pre-release version of a software product to a user computing device of a user for testing of the on-demand pre-release version of the software product, the access being provided without installing a copy of the on-demand pre-release version of the software product on the user computing device of the user; forwarding, using the computing device, a client side control to the user computer device for installation on the user computing device; receiving, using the computing device, results of the testing via the client side control, receiving the results including: tracking, using the client side control, usage of the on-demand pre-release version of the software product by the user, the usage including two or more of: information identifying an amount of time spent by the user during the testing of the on-demand pre-release version of the software product, information identifying a feature of the on-demand pre-release version of the software product used during the testing of the on-demand pre-release version of the software product, or information identifying one or more other software products tested by the user; recording, using the computing device, an error, in connection with the usage of the on-demand pre-release version of the software product, among the results received via the client side control, the error being recorded without a request from the user to record the error, the error including a segmentation violation or an anomalous behavior; generating, using the computing device, a report including: information identifying the usage, and information identifying the error; and transmitting, using the computing device, the report from the computing device to a device of another user, the report being transmitted to the device of the other user for the other user to reproduce the error, the other user being a software developer or a product analyst associated with the software product, the other user being different than the user.