bunq Together

bunq beta program

YellowLabel

Awesome. bunq knows I like giving them feedback, so count me in!

yllwfsh

Johannes 🇦🇺 I agree. I know that on iOS the system for this is already in place. It's called Testflight. I beta tested a few other apps as well and works great to get beta versions and even immediate updates without going through the normal iOS/App store verification process.

I don't know about Android but I imagine they have something similar in place as well.

Sander

Johannes 🇦🇺 such a Beta program won't give any better guarantee in my opinion. Yes, it will be tested by more people. But these are still human beings, who make mistakes. So bugs can still slip through. bunq already does extensive testing internally, where a very wide range of features are being tested. Actually, as a new employee, you get to do very very extensive testing, which lets you familiarize with the app really fast. 😁 I honestly think it won't make much of a difference in the end. 🙂

Roeshimi

Sander Then why do you think companies do beta tests in the first place? That's what beta tests are for.
And I mean no offense to anyone, but if such obvious bugs make into the production version of the app, testing was not good enough

johannes

Sander I personally think people from "outside" would still help, as it would give bunq "different" eyes.. Surely bunq is testing the app by themselves, I didn't want to say that bunq isn't testing the app at all. But I personally think 50-100 outside testers with different devices, OS versions, .. could still help.
At the end it is just an idea, I personally think with that many new features each week errors do happen - and I think with outside testers there could be less of them. Of course it wouldn't make bunq bug free.

But just think about the bug with the verification code for your IBAN for auto topup.. A "one day" beta test for 50-100 outside testers might have fixed it before it went public.

Sander

Roeshimi for sure, beta programs are very useful. But don't forget that bunq is not 'just another company'. They are a bank, with very strict regulations to comply with.

Roeshimi And I mean no offense to anyone, but if such obvious bugs make into the production version of the app, testing was not good enough

And that's exactly my point; things will slip through. You will catch more, but what factual guarantee do you have that significantly more bugs will be caught before production? They could just as well slip through, the beta-testers are also human. 🙂

Johannes 🇦🇺 But just think about the bug with the verification code for your IBAN for auto topup.. A "one day" beta test for 50-100 outside testers might have fixed it before it went public.

Yes, true, it will catch more, but you should look also from the other side; bunq will need to make quite some changes to facilitate this. The time necessary for this needs to be justified with the added benefits, and although there will be benefits, I don't think they will outweigh the time investments at this point. 🙂

Disclaimer: my view on this might be slightly biased 😜😬

Roeshimi

Sander There are no guarantees yes, but you improve your chances 😁

johannes

Sander

Sander And that's exactly my point; things will slip through. You will catch more, but what factual guarantee do you have that significantly more bugs will be caught before production? They could just as well slip through, the beta-testers are also human. 🙂

I think especially the "bigger" bugs like a not working new feature would basically not go through with 50-100 external testers.

Sander The time necessary for this needs to be justified with the added benefits, and although there will be benefits, I don't think they will outweigh the time investments at this point.

Let's see, I personally think it could add enough benefits as I don't want to see "early builds" getting tested with outsiders, I only want to see the "final builds" getting tested, the build that bunq would normally release to the public :)

JohnDo

I have a different perspective on this... I think beta testen can be very helpful.. not only in finding bugs but also so in getting some valuable feedback from different perspectives enabling you to fine tune a feature more before going live. So less bugs and better adoption :)...

I work in the financial industry and we also did similar thing by involving a group of positive yet critical users. That gave some pretty valuable feedback. Mainly because we learned more about the end users needs.. things you can't think of on paper 👍...

But that said... testing is a highly specialised expertise we often underestimate.

Anyways... I'm available ;)...

Roeshimi

I am working as a test engineer and errors and bugs seem to find me so holla if you need me bunq 😁

johannes

Roeshimi I don't know if bunq should "pick" them, it could be in some ways an open beta - as the build would be the final build normally public for all :) I don't know how easy that is on iOS, but on Android you can go to an app - page and click on "be a beta tester" - and you get the beta builds :)

yllwfsh

Johannes 🇦🇺 bunq would have to publish a link to the Testflight program and then people can download the Testflight app. Users can then get the pre-releases of the bunq app via Testflight. Feedback is given via the same app. https://developer.apple.com/testflight/