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Some things are easy. Some are a bucket of worms. Get it right and things will flow smoothly.
February 21, 2020

Some things are easy. Some are a bucket of worms. Get it right and things will flow smoothly.

Dr Gardiner Jones | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Micro Focus ALM Octane

Micro Focus ALM Octane is currently used by the firm, to which I am under contract, for the Quality Assurance team. In that role, it is used by developers both on- and off-shore and Quality Assurance analysts for project management and rapid turn-around for their regular releases of in-house software used in kidney dialysis clinics around the world. They use Agile with scrum masters in the development phase and with test cases for QA analysts.
  • It integrates very well with Micro Focus ALM.
  • It integrates with Elastic Search -- a bit difficult to achieve, but it does it.
  • The integration to Synchronizer is very difficult to implement.
  • The integration to Jira was very hard to get working.
  • Our Performance Measurement team uses ALM all the time for test performance measurement in conjunction with HP Performance Center. We could not have such a robust performance capability without ALM.
  • Not being on the management side of it (I am a technical resource for support), I do not have solid information on ROI.
Micro Focus ALM Octane use at DaVita goes back beyond my starting with them three years ago. They have used it as part of DevOps as well as for performance measurement of software releases in combo with HP Performance Center (a great combination). Jira is well suited to managing bug reports and development processes with Agile and Scrum, but ALM Octane goes above and beyond that.
The consultant who came to our premises to assist with the upgrade of ALM and then later of ALM Octane with ElasticSearch and Synchronizer to Jira was outstanding. He was professional, very knowledgeable, and when additional support directly from Microfocus was needed he had no trouble contacting them and getting the necessary support. Since the implementation and upgrades, we have had ZERO issues getting someone at Micro Focus to engage us and resolve issues whenever they pop up. They are knowledgeable, personable and extremely helpful.

Do you think OpenText ALM Octane delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with OpenText ALM Octane's feature set?

Yes

Did OpenText ALM Octane live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of OpenText ALM Octane go as expected?

No

Would you buy OpenText ALM Octane again?

Yes

If someone is already using ALM Octane, then it is worth the pain to go through the upgrade process to get the current versions. If you need it to tie into Jira, it can do that. Just be prepared for a rough road. If you have some other product that you use for DevOps, PM, and QA, you will probably be better off sticking with what you have. DaVita also uses TFS, but not in a full implementation (i.e. not with a build server for code deployment), so for them, ALM makes a lot of sense. If you are using TFS with a build server, there are other methodologies that won't end up making you want to pull your hair out trying to make it integrate with what you are using.

Micro Focus ALM Octane Support

ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
No escalation required
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
After the initial implementation, DaVita used ALM Octane with ALM, ElasticSearch, and Synchronizer to Jira. During the link-up to Jira, we had numerous issues with field mappings. We had absolutely no problem getting someone on the horn to help us on a moment's notice when those issues arose. We also receive stellar support when the licensing for the product was about to expire because it had been implemented with trial licenses good for (I think) 30 or 60 days. Micro Focus immediately worked with us to get our replacement licenses in hand and configured in the software.