Alpha

The alpha phase of the release life cycle is the first, and it is not thoroughly developed and tested by the membership. It, therefore, may contain serious errors, and if it is code or an API, it may result in instability or could cause crashes or data loss. Future releases may change significantly and may not be backward compatible. Any TM Forum assets in the Alpha stage will be viewed in draft form and may not contain all of the planned features or content for the final version. An alpha asset is designed to gather industry feedback and will be taken through to the Beta stage for further testing and validation. 

An alpha asset, at a minimum, is team approved and will only need member input of 5 members.   

An alpha asset is sent out for Member Evaluation only.

Beta

Beta is the asset development phase following alpha. The asset in the Beta phase may still contain errors, may not contain all of the features or content planned for the final version, and maybe relatively immature. Still, it has received additional member input from the initial Alpha phase. For example, if it is TM Forum code or an API, it may still contain some bugs and cause crashes or data loss, and may not work as well as designed/intended. Therefore, the focus of the Beta phase is to continue the development of the asset with further member input and will be helpful for additional input and to demonstrate to the industry the focus and the development of the work. 

A Beta asset can be team-approved and sent for corporate vote, and it must at least be in a development phase or version phase two. 

A beta document needs to be tested/reviewed by five members.  

A beta asset is sent out for Member Evaluation only.

General Availability (GA) - A TM Forum Approved Standard

General availability (GA) is the stage at which all necessary improvement activities have been completed, and the asset has been robustly tested, and we know it is, therefore, a standard. The asset must be complete and have case studies demonstrating it is working. It would have gone to corporate vote for it to be a GA – TM Forum approved standard. 

It needs to be validated by 10 TM Forum members or has demonstrated case studies against the work.   

A general availability asset is sent out for Member Evaluation and Corporate Vote.