How to use dogfood testing

A number of companies use the word dogfood testing to describe part of their software testing process. I believe it’s a powerful and essential part of testing as I mention in My hierarchy of testing. However, it means different things to different people, so I wanted to describe how I think it should be used to make the most of it.

As great as QA engineers can be, it’s sometimes impossible to cover the breadth of a product and ensure high quality. Dogfood testing is the practice of installing reasonably current builds of a product on your own device(s) and living on them. Everyone has their own unique way of using their devices so it can be a great way to tease out bugs that otherwise would be very difficult to find. Historically, many of the most important bugs I’ve seen have come out of this process.

An important part of dogfood testing is that it’s an integral part of the development process. Since people doing dogfood testing are also going about their lives, it’s important that gre…