The alpha build of the software is the build delivered to the software
testers, that is persons different from the software engineers, but usually
internal to the organization or community that develops the software. In a rush
to market, more and more companies are engaging external customers or
value-chain partners in their alpha testing phase. This allows more extensive
usability testing during the alpha phase.
In the first phase of testing, developers generally test the software using
white box techniques. Additional validation is then performed using black box or
grey box techniques, by another dedicated testing team, sometimes concurrently.
Moving to black box testing inside the organization is known as alpha release.