OpenText ALM / Quality Center Reviews

We use all the major modules in ALM Quality Center. From the releases and management portion, we use the requirements, and we create our releases. We create requirements. We link our test spaces to these requirements and we schedule the execution in the test lab. Then we capture our results in Quality Center and we follow the management process that is not only for manual testing. 

We also have quite extensive automated testing in our environment with some of the other Micro Focus products. They are all integrated into Quality Center, like the UFT, we use service virtualization, we have RPA and we also use Mobile Center. Quality Center plays a major role in our test artifacts, our execution, and our order tracking, both in manual and automated.

Quality Center has improved my organization from a traceability and test coverage point of view. We have multiple vendors providing development to my company, Pick n Pay. If we use automation or Sprinter, the tool documents the steps for us as we follow it to the point that we've got a defect, so it's easy to send that information on to third parties so that they can duplicate the defect on their side and then provide us with a fix. 

The other thing is from a regression point of view, with everything documented in Quality Center, it's easy to go back and execute the same test every time with automation.

Quality Center's ability to connect all related entities to reflect project status and progress is great. This is the tool that we share with all our project managers so that they can see the progress on their projects, even if it's a project across multiple applications or what it is within our environment. We set it up so they can have an overall view of that specific project. It is a great tool to use in that sense.

The test center is our way of working. It's fully integrated, we have a test strategy that supports the use of ALM Quality Center. That's the only way that we track progress on projects. We don't use Excel or anything like that for creating test cases or anything. We also have an environment where we follow a more agile approach and we've integrated Quality Center into JIRA for user stories and defect tracking. If it's not in Quality Center, it's not happening. If it's not documented in Quality Center, we don't believe it.

I wouldn't necessarily say that in the beginning it reduced the time required for testing but if you start on an application and you had the four-quarter full version of that, reusability is automatically built into the tool. Then if you've documented the test case, you've got it. You can reuse that test case in multiple instances of releases at execution. You don't have to go and rewrite it if you plan correctly. If there's a change to something with the way you've structured in Quality Center it will filter through. So it brings our maintenance down by a lot less. Even on the automation side, it brings the maintenance down a lot less with the way we've structured our modules within Quality Center.

It has reduced it by around 15%. That's without automation, it's straight Quality Center. If you add the automation, in some of our areas like the digital area, it brought it down by about 45%. In some of the other areas by around 50%.

Quality Center enables us to conduct risk-based testing. Testing is always a measured approach in our environment. Depending on when development is finished and when we go live, we will do a risk-based approach to say that if we have a look at the critical requirements or test cases, this is how long it will take us. We then get sign-off from the systems analyst, the project manager, and even the business to say, based on the time we have, we're only going to execute critical test cases, for instance.

I'm not 100% sure if Micro Focus is still investing in the product. If I have a look at the features, not 15.01 because we still have to install that, but previously from Quality Center 11 up to where we are now, there are a few things that have been outstanding for a while that I believe will add value. And they're not really getting to that. So I'm not sure what their road map is. Unfortunately this year, the Micro Focus Universe was canceled in the Netherlands, because I'm sure there they would have shared some of the road maps with us, but I don't think the communication on their road map is clear enough to their customers.

We are a partner in a smaller company in Denmark. Previously, we were a very strong partner with HPE until it was sold to Micro Focus. We did a lot of MSP hosting of ALM and worked extensively with LoadRunner, the functional testing solution. 

We have significant experience, although it is not our main focus currently. Many large customers in Denmark use Micro Focus products, including ALM. We definitely use them, though we are not an MSP, as we used to host ALM for about ten customers.

We have done some work with companies, probably four or five years ago and found the ability to manage multiple releases simultaneously as a main advantage, especially in complex programs with multiple concurrent releases. 

Running automated tests against back-level versions in certain environments is possible, and newer versions can be tested as well. It creates constant visibility into the test process, showing the status, bugs, and automated test results. 

It is a solid product in large corporations in Denmark, ensuring everyone knows where the process stands. There is a good understanding of what is critical, allowing prioritization of test cases.

I am currently working a lot, having started using Amazon Prime recently. The user I worked for before has used it for four years. We have features like the ping feature and CVC, as well as the ability to download test cases. We can upload test cases and create requirements for stability metrics to ensure all the requirements are covered. 

It also contains information that allows us to execute automation on all six servers. Most clients are moving out of AMM, but they are exploring other tools like Tutor and Octane, although I'm unsure why. Based on the requirements, we write plans for reviews. 

We also use Microsoft Excel plugins to approach cases, operating the spaces. We applied some tool insulators to download the spaces. We ensure the draft test is executed correctly once the application is running and check the current status.

We have a ping feature similar to CVC and can download and upload test cases. We can create a requirement for stability metrics with the test cases to ensure all requirements are covered. It contains information that allows us to execute automation on all six servers. 

Most clients are moving out of AMM and exploring tools like Tutor and Octane. We are not managing directly as people use test data for defects. We handle requests and examinations and manage them. However, people are opting for tools like Jira for management.

We identified an object that was supposed to have a width of 30 characters, but instead had 100,000. No manual tester would have found it, forcing developers to take a second look at all objects which uncovered similar size issues.

While my experience tells me successful automation projects are at 70% coverage of manual test cases, we have been able to hit well into the 90% range of .Net automation with this tool.

So the first impression that hits me about HP UFT 14.0 (formerly QTP) is that it seems to be a whole lot faster! But that could be subjective, as I'm running it on a high end gaming system.

And my second impression was "Oh man, why does it still do THAT?"

Let's review the good stuff:

VBscript language -Easy to learn, surprisingly powerful and extendable.

What I will call the "PDM.DLL feature" provides a list view of any object property and methods at run-time from the code as well as the two other windows.

Built in Excel Datatables for Data-driven design

Revamped beautiful HTML results report with screen and movie capture

Terminal Emulator automation.

Modular design (through functions, ALM components and Flows)

Launch through Jenkins brings CI to the test automation development team.

Can leverage Windows API calls as well as custom AutoItScript for enhanced features.

The wide range of supported current and legacy web technologies, desktop apps, and WebServices testing is by far the most valuable feature.

Even in the case where technology is only partially supported, being able to customize out-of-the-box object methods is another time saver.

For example, we recently started to investigate automation of an AngularJS application. The problem was record/playback (UFT 12.54) did not work on it. However, the Object Spy correctly adds objects to the Object Repository. In addition Descriptive Programming worked from our custom framework. We had a basic login/navigate/verify Proof of Concept test operational with AngularJS Buttons, Links and Images quickly. Minor custom coding was required to override .Set methods of WebEdit objects, and more will be needed to support it's Angular WebTable objects. Totally doable for an experienced level team or user.

Mine is a testing project. All my requirements, test cases, test executions, and results are maintained within OpenText ALM Quality Center. Both automated and manual testing results are generated from there.

OpenText ALM Quality Center is highly customizable. We can add a lot of fields and customization into the system. It allows us to maintain all requirements, test cases, test executions, and results. Both automated and manual testing results are managed, which is beneficial. The integration with internal applications and CollabNet is made possible through exposed APIs, allowing necessary integrations.

We are from a Vodafone department that manages testing and quality. We brought this tool in to assist us. We are constantly using it. 95 percent of projects are running on it.

We mostly use this solution on our laptop devices.

It is helping with our delivery, testing, and quality processing. It links all our test cases with defects. Users from across the globe can comment on a defect or add attach artifacts to the defect cycle. ALM adds control with its integration.

We use it for visibility on multiple projects. We categorize all our deliveries into different domains and projects. Recently, we had a call with the technical team and they suggested to split our project into multiple domains and projects since this account is not that big. We hardly have six to seven projects running in parallel so we manage with one domain and one project, and all other projects are archived. We decided the way forward would be to split one project into multiple domains. This way, if in future something goes wrong, other projects will not get impacted if there is a problem with a project.

The solution’s ability to connect all related entities to reflect project status and progress is good. Right now, individual users are logging in with Single Sign-On and uploading their test cases. Performance usability is fine.

We have never experienced any security issues.

We used ALM, specifically ALM Octane Test Manager. We utilized all the modules when we purchased a full license. However, after they were sold, we realized that we could explore other tools. We decided to update and now use Jira, which has its own developers and tools. We are happy with this change as it doesn't require any payment.

It was good when we used it, and Jira is also providing similar features now. Jira integrates with automation tools and is open-source. I was an admin for ALM and used it to monitor everything. 

However, I currently don't have the time to use or update it and am not actively using it anymore.

We use it for recording our requirements. We use it for recording our test cases and the data is done within the ALM itself. And, during execution, we use it to update services and to log defects.

The solution reduces testing time, although not in all cases. But it is capable and in some cases, like for web testing, where we are easily able to capture screenshots and videos within the ALM workflow itself, or the test execution steps, it really saves us time. Otherwise, the guys have to keep on capturing screenshots into a file. Here, they can upload  everything in one shot. In that aspect, we have seen some savings in execution and, while they are not that drastic, it does help.

When it comes to the test planning cycle, if I have my regression cases, they could be almost 40 percent of the cases and they are repeated. So instead of uploading them again, I can easily replicate them in ALM. That is one way I am able to save and I would estimate that saves around 25 to 30 percent. The other part is when it comes to the execution steps. The savings are not so drastic but they could be between 5 and 10 percent.