dogfooding - technical definition

Refers to using the software that one creates in the beta test stages and especially thereafter. Software developers are often criticized for not using their own software on a daily basis and thus not really understanding how it is to operate and where to improve it. The expression comes from early, live TV commercials for dog food when the dog occasionally refused to eat the chow. "Does the dog eat the dog food?" came to mean "do they really like the product?"