olemus
tarkvaratoote esimene üldjoontes valmis ja elementaarselt testitud versioon, kasutamiseks ainult väljatöötaja organisatsioonis ning ainult demo- ja testimisotstarbeks; kõiki võimeid ega võimalusi ei tarvitse veel olla
Wiktionary:
(computing, technology) an early version of a program or application, typically unstable, but useful to show what the product will do
Sometimes this stage is referred to as a preview version. Sometimes no more features are added after this release, but bug fixes continue. This release comes after a pre-alpha version and before a beta version. As opposed to a beta version an alpha version is usually not feature complete.

ülevaateid
https://www.techopedia.com/definition/3740/alpha-version
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_release_life_cycle#Alpha
https://medium.com/coreto/the-difference-between-alpha-testing-vs-beta-testing-explained-61f83abdc2ee
https://blog.codinghorror.com/alpha-beta-and-sometimes-gamma/

vt ka
- alfaeelne versioon
- beetaversioon