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- Alpha testing: Initial testing by the Research Department to establish the content and performance of the next IFS cycle for implementation in Operations. During this testing stage regular modifications and updates of the experiments are quite common and these changes may alter the model results. Users will not have access to these preliminary datasets.
- Beta testing: Once a cycle has passed this initial stage it will be passed to the Forecast Forecasts and Services Department for further tests to evaluate the potential impact on Operations. At this stage a technical test data set will be made available to users to test the technical impact on user's applications and tools. This testing stage is usually prone to minor updates, starts and restarts and users should not rely on the availability of these test data sets for their own tests before the next stage of testing has been reached. During this phase there may be a few changes that may alter the model results but these will be fully documented. Users will have access to part of the data generated during this phase.
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