The best for handling all things in testing projects
May 04, 2016
The best for handling all things in testing projects
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Overall Satisfaction with HP Application Lifecycle Management
HP ALM is a tool I use to manage the testing life cycle for woftware implementation projects. The teams that use the tool are project team members from development and testing teams and some members of the management team to review status. HP ALM is a very handy application to keep track of all things related to testing. In recent updates they have added functionality to track the general software implementation life cycle, but my experience is focused on the testing aspect of it.
HP ALM is a single repository that can be accessed universally by project team members through a browser, where you can upload your project requirements, then add your test cases and link the requirement to those test cases and then execute and track the test execution and log and track defects all on the same application.
HP ALM is a single repository that can be accessed universally by project team members through a browser, where you can upload your project requirements, then add your test cases and link the requirement to those test cases and then execute and track the test execution and log and track defects all on the same application.
- Keep track of project requirements and review requirement coverage and fulfillment with relation to test cases executed. In HP ALM you can easily review the project requirements and assess the current status by looking at passed and failed requirements based on the execution results of the test cases linked to these requirements.
- Execute test cases and keep track of the execution - HP ALM can track both Manual and Automated tests (with the help of HP UFT). Test cases can be easily organized and assigned to testers, then the actual test execution can be tracked in HP ALM where testers will pass or fail individual and detailed steps of the test cases in HP ALM. From here you can generate real time reports on test execution, on testers, or on tests executed by day etc.
- Create and track defects - HP ALM will let you log defects found in software applications for a specific project, or test phase, add the detail (even screenshots) using its own screenshot tools and assign these defects to the developers which in turn can provide feedback and status resolution that will notify the tester whenever a defect has been modified or fixed in order to be re-executed until the defect reaches the final closed status. All history is kept in HP ALM.
- While very useful, HP ALM is an expensive tool, price for licensing is one of the main reasons clients tend to refrain from user HP ALM
- While HP ALM has a native connectivity with HP UFT for test automation, integrating other tools with HP ALM though possible is not as straight forward as could be, HP ALM could make connections to it easier for third party applications.
- Some browsers are better prepared to work with HP ALM, if some of the plugins that are loaded at the first tme login fail to load, the 'recipe' to bypass this error and make it load can be difficult and sometimes some security settings in the network need to be set for ALM to work
- Facilitates the project team members to easily do the handling and tracking of all test activities in a unified system, so no more spreadsheets or out of time status. All is tracked in real-time when testers keep executing and logging test results and defects in ALM.
- For large enterprises where multiple implementation or enhancement projects will take place during the upcoming years, HP ALM is a great investment. The licensing price might be high but it will save a lot of time and headaches for project managers when dealing with testing phases and defect tracking.
- For smaller companies where not many projects will be planned during the coming years it might not be the best investment. The licensing is not cheap and if they are planning to use it for a few projects, the investment will not pay for itself. So it's better find some other solutions or even a good set of organized spreadsheets or MS SharePoint folders to track testing.
HP ALM is the best for tracking testing no questions about it, it is more robust and mature than JIRA or IBM Rational. It has the capability to track not only test, requirements and even software or project development. Reports can be easily configured and produced from ALM, when compared with other similar products like JIRA., Well the disadvantage is the pricing, JIRA can be had for free or minimal fees and that is an advantage that might work for smaller projects/companies.