agile alm source book 2008
TRANSCRIPT
A SUPPLEMENT TO
SEPTEMBER 1, 2008
Diamond Sponsor Platinum Sponsors Gold Sponsors
33
introduction
What is the application life cycle?In the traditional model, theapplication’s life begins when it’senvisioned by a stakeholder.
Next, it’s designed by an architect and codedand tested by developers. Once developmentis complete, the software is run through QAby test teams and deployed by administrators.After deployment, it’s maintained by develop-ers and administrators. Periodically, new ver-sions are designed, coded, tested anddeployed. Some day, far in the future, theapplication is decommissioned.
That’s how it works in the traditional model for large, monolithic appli-cations. For many modern applications, a more agile methodology offerscontinuous builds and continuous deployments. In other organizations,developers use a SOA model, building and deploying many small servicepublishers and consumers.
Every organization has its own variety of the application life cycle.Every organization also has its specific requirements for tools for applica-tion life-cycle management. More than just development tools, today’sALM solutions are broader than architecture, development and test/QA.They encompass everything from source configuration management,build management, metrics, reporting, project management, processcompliance, collaboration and governance.
Thanks to modern ALM solutions, everyone involved in softwaredevelopment can actively contribute to the entire application life cycle,not just to their portion of it. What’s more, managers can see the entirelife cycle of all their projects, to understand how their resources are beingused, and where workflow isn’t as efficient as it should be.
A real benefit of modern ALM solutions is that they can make softwareless expensive to build, in real terms, by accelerating portions of the lifecycle, enhancing quality standards, providing meaningful metrics and fos-tering code reuse.
This Special Supplement to SD Times was created to introduce you tothe industry’s leading application lifecycle management solutionsproviders. From requirements to quality, from build management toprocess management, these companies offer a full spectrum of productsand services. Be sure to consider them when evaluating ALM solutions.
We hope you enjoy this Supplement to SD Times.
Alan ZeichickEditorial Director, SD Times
Editorial DirectorAlan [email protected] EditorAdam LoBeliaLead WriterGeorge WalshFeature WriterLisa Morgan
Art DirectorErin BroadhurstCustomer Service/SD Times [email protected] ReprintsLisa Abelson [email protected]
BZ Media LLC7 High Street, Suite 407Huntington, NY 11743+1-631-421-4158 • fax +1-631-421-4130www.bzmedia.com • [email protected] BahrExecutive Vice PresidentAlan Zeichick
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ALM is Everywherecontents
Alan ZeichickEditorial Director, SD Times
4 Building on ALMApplication life-cycle managementenables higher levels of efficiencyBy Lisa Morgan
7 Seapine Puts the ‘Pro’ in ‘Productivity’Seapine — Diamond Sponsor
11 Integrity Is the Key to Success for MKSMKS — Platinum Sponsor
15 Rally Puts Agility Intothe App Life CycleRally — Platinum Sponsor
19 True ALM Functionality WithUrbancode AnthillProUrbancode — Platinum Sponsor
23 With Kovair, ALM Is the Sum of Its PartsKovair — Platinum Sponsor
27 Electric Cloud Showsthe Silver LiningElectric Cloud — Gold Sponsor
28 Better Agile BuildsWith Mojo and MeisterOpenmake — Bronze Sponsor
29 Telelogic Takes ALM GlobalTelelogic — Bronze Sponsor
31 Polarion ALM MeansSolid InformationPolarion — Gold Sponsor
33 TechExcel Takes theConfusion out of ALMTechExcel — Silver Sponsor
A pplication life-cycle management is one of those broadindustry terms that’s interpreted differently by differentpeople because it lacks a single industry-standard defini-tion. What’s driving ALM is a common set of pain points
like a lack of visibility across tools and less-than-optimal integra-tion—factors that negatively impact productivity. In today’s worldof shrinking budgets, faster release cycles and greater softwarecomplexity, organizational cohesiveness is necessary to remaincompetitive. That means the time is ripe for ALM.
ALM is, after all, an evolutionary development that has beenshaped by market forces. Software companies concede that devel-opment shops have exhausted too much time and too manyresources trying to reconcile the differences inherent in point solu-tions, even those they offered themselves yearsago. Over time, greater degrees of integrationhave been sought through product suites, mid-dleware and “open” APIs, although not all suppli-er have been motivated to connect with others.
Given the real-world pressures of modernsoftware development—lightning speed andunprecedented efficiency—it is not only idealbut necessary to achieve higher levels of inte-gration that enable the sharing of project statusand information across teams and departmen-tal lines. ALM is essentially a superchargedsuperset of what has preceded it.
“ALM is really a combination of people,processes, tools and culture,” said Richard Ric-cetti, President and CEO of Seapine, a leadingprovider of ALM solutions.
“Life cycle” is the operative word as ALM isa cradle-to-grave concept that spans everythingfrom requirements planning to deployment andmonitoring. Some companies focus on a subsetof functions while others provide broader prod-uct suites intended to support a wider array offunctions. Either way, there is a trend toward more and betterintegration with the supplier’s own tools and third-party products.
Not one of the software companies we’ve talked to claims tooffer a totally complete ALM solution, and they say that no onecurrently does.
A single turnkey solution would be beside the point, they say,because the real goal is to enable visibility across processes at busi-ness and software development levels, increase the efficiency ofworkflow, and provide more effective means of communicating andcollaborating throughout the software life cycle.
For example, Urbancode addresses requirements manage-ment, build management, configuration management, releasemanagement, testing/QA, deployment, monitoring and reporting,workflow, and collaboration, according to CEO Maciej Zawadzki.However, the company does not offer solutions for modeling anddesign. Instead, Urbancode focuses on what it does best and inte-
grates with complementary third-party software configurationmanagement (SCM) and testing tools, including Seapine’s auto-mated testing tools, even though Urbancode provides some of thesame functionality.
One of Urbancode’s more interesting features has to do withbuild management. Instead of creating new software artifactsbased on the outcome of different testing stages, Urbancodemaintains a common set of artifacts to which the various tests areapplied. Zawadzki calls this a “living build” which provides moreconsistent visibility. It also allows for more productive cross-func-tional discussions because the data is correlated.
“ALM is like the CRM or ERP of software development anddelivery because it provides traceability and visibility,” said
Zawadzki. “Automation increases speed, but youreally need to be able to share information toimprove quality.”
Speaking of quality, it’s no surprise thatSeapine labels its approach “quality-centricALM.” Seapine was one of the first compa-nies to stress the importance of testing earlyand often.
“If you want high-quality code on time, youhave to take an integrated approach to design,coding and testing,” said Seapine’s Riccetti.“ALM is a coupling of tools and processes—artifact management and communicationamong internal and external stakeholders.”
The idea is to provide a means of managingpeople, workloads and artifacts using a com-mon repository that transcends departmentallines. In addition to being able to controlchanges to artifacts through version control,sandboxing and branching, ALM helpsimprove workflows by automating additionalfunctions beyond testing and providing stake-holders with notifications of changes.
The higher levels of visibility benefit both team leaders andexecutives. Team leaders and managers are tasked with deliveringprojects on time and on budget, which means they need a reliablemeans of assigning and tracking tasks.
Executives are concerned about the negative economic effectsof poor software quality. Buggy software translates to poor cus-tomer satisfaction and less loyalty, which in turn affect top-linerevenue and bottom-line profitability. ALM helps ensure tighterlevels of control, providing both team leaders and executives withmore effective tracing and tracking capabilities.
“Tools alone aren’t enough to ensure quality,” added Seap-ine’s Riccetti. “Quality must be a part of the culture, and itrequires education. You have to have quality processes.”
At Seapine, quality is no longer synonymous with testing eventhough Seapine is best known for its long heritage of testing solu-tions. Today, “quality” extends to configuration, change manage-
Building on ALMApplication life-cycle management enables higher levels of efficiency
44
overview
You can remember all the aspects ofALM by using the handy mnemonicRVMDFBCCPRTDMWCT. It expands to:
• RRequirements planning
• VVisualization management
• MModeling
• DDesign
• FFeature management
• BBuild management
• CConfiguration management
• CChange management
• PProject management
• RRelease management
• TTesting/QA
• DDeployment
• MMonitoring and reporting
• WWorkflow
• CCollaboration
• TTeam communication
WHAT DOES ALM INCLUDE?
By Lisa Morgan
ment, release management, monitoring, reporting and workflow,in addition to testing and QA. Equally important is customerfeedback because it’s the key to improving customer experience.
MKS is also providing visibility across disciplines and com-plicated workflows via a comprehensive platform that con-templates a broad range of processes within and throughoutthe application life cycle, said CEO Philip Deck.
“We used to call ALM SCM, but today ALM is more thanthe sum of the parts,” explained Deck. “Today, you need anenterprise management system that spans diversity.”
One historic problem with cross-functional communica-tion stems from the different types of tools used within anorganization, tools that output different types of data, e.g.,source code as opposed to spreadsheets or documents. MKSsupports both software and non-software artifacts to enablehigher levels of visibility and collaboration than would bepossible otherwise.
“Software and non-software artifacts should be configuredconsistently because your source code needs to map torequirements and documents, and you want to maximizereuse,” said Deck. “We provide a single way to manage soft-ware and non-software artifacts throughout the life cycle.”
Rally Software address agility’s cultural and acceleratedrelease perspectives. “We focus on short, iterative developmentcycles,” said Richard Leavitt, VP of product marketing.
Leavitt says “classic ALM” focused solely on software def-inition and development, as well as testing and acceptancewith early team tools focusing on version control and bugtracking. Over time, it has become necessary to fold in proj-ect prioritization and scheduling as well as software hardeningand release because Monday morning meetings just don’t cutit in an era when software development life cycles haveshrunk from 18 months or two years to about two weeks.
Of course, software development doesn’t happen in a vacu-um, which means the business case, deployment and supportalso have to be contemplated. As a result, Rally offers tools thatsupport these capabilities as well, so the needs of the businessand the software team can be addressed simultaneously.
“You need real-time visibility into work items, block andquality issues, and you need to be able to communicate if you’regoing to coordinate efforts across teams,” Leavitt said. “Whenyou’re working with smaller inventories that have fewer defects,you can develop better code faster and become more agile.”
Kovair is also taking a broad approach to ALM, which con-templates process methodology and control, integration withbest of breed tools, and a total view of the development envi-ronment across multiple internal or outsourced locations.
According to Kovair CEO Bipin Shah, ALM is an ecosys-tem of integrated multi-vendor tools used by different groupsindependent of geography, organization, technology and func-tion. It allows information to flow across tools through auto-mated processes. The data is completely traceable, and it canbe measured and viewed using consolidated reporting func-tions irrespective of the tool-origin.
“An ideal ALM environment should be capable of han-dling multiple releases and projects for different groups at dif-ferent locations efficiently, and enable a collaboration irre-spective of the different processes and methodologies thatmay be unique to each project or product,” said Shah. “Toovercome this challenge, ALM tools have to be able to handlemultiple process workflows simultaneously, have a Web-based
architecture for collaboration between multiple locations andhave the capabilities to handle the entire ecosystem of tools inan integrated manner.”
Kovair is a great example of a company that supports broadintegration with third-party tools, as most development shopshave already adopted point or partially integrated solutions.Kovair’s SOA architecture and open APIs let customers canintegrate tools with Kovair’s workflow engine. According toShah, Kovair’s approach to ALM meets the requirements ofALM 2.0 as defined by Carey Schwaber of Forrester Research.
“Today we can truly deliver on all the aspects of ALM 2.0,including process, the total ecosystem of integrated tools, theglobal visibility and total reporting that management trulydemands from the development organizations,” said Shah.
By contrast, the historical reality is that organizations tendto choose one tool a time that suits a particular group ordepartment, even though such an approach does not serve theentire organization over the long term.
Shah says these organizations need to ask fewer questionsabout tools and more questions about the process and cre-ation of an entire ecosystem for applications developmentand management, without getting bogged down choosingone tool at a time.
All these compnies agree that ALM’s greatest benefits areunprecedented levels of visibility, higher levels of productivi-ty and more efficient collaboration—which yield higher qual-ity code and faster release cycles.
“ALM is the next evolution in integration,” said Seapine’sRiccetti. “In the old days we had discrete tools for defect rack-ing and source control, but today integration creates a founda-tion for automation that results in greater efficiency.”
But again, the success of ALM does not depend solely ontools. It requires a more integral approach to workflows, inter-and intra-departmental communications, software develop-ment, and overall business efficiency. Toward that end, Seapineand others are expanding their product sets and interfacing tomore third-party solutions. In addition, some offer a full rangeof services that are designed to help customersbecome more competitive.
For example, Seapine’s “Quality ReadyAssessment” provides a competitive viewof internal practices, so organizationscan understand where they’re fallingshort. The assessment often revealsthat individuals within an organizationview quality differently which trans-lates to competitive disadvantages.
“Quality is cultural, which is whywe’re providing a more holisticapproach,” said Seapine’s Ric-cetti. “Tools alone won’t help youdeliver on time or on budget, orachieve high levels of customersatisfaction.” o
Lisa Morgan is an independentmanagement and marketing con-sultant who writes about criticalbusiness and technology issues. Shehas been a contributing editor toSD Times since 2000. 55
Application life-cycle management implies efficiencyand effectiveness. Efficiency means seamless inte-gration and solid processes. If a team’s tools aren’twell integrated, productivity suffers. If the tools fail
to enforce common processes or provide meaningful met-rics, both the manager and the team are going to be at risk.When it comes to integration, processes, and metrics, Seap-ine Software offers the industry’s professional-grade applica-tion life-cycle management solution.
“Our belief is the sum of the parts is greater than thewhole,” says Richard Riccetti, president and CEO of Seap-ine (www.seapine.com). “Analysts, vendors and customershave had a difficult time consistently defining what ALMmeans. From our perspective, ALM is the coupling of toolsand processes to manage the business of developing soft-ware applications. That includes the intellectual property,such as source code, designs, ideas, customer feedback, bugsand other information that must be stored, presented andacted on. An ALM solutions provider must provide a tightlyintegrated suite that manages the activities andartifacts in the software development life cycle.”
Seapine’s solutions includ TestTrack Pro fordefect tracking, Surround SCM for softwareconfiguration management, TestTrack TCM fortest case management, and QA Wizard Pro forautomated functional and regression testing.
TestTrack Pro—the flagship of the Seapinefleet—tracks all development information,including defects, feature requests, changerequests and tasks. But TestTrack Pro’s capabil-ities do not stop there. Gentex, one of Seapine’scustomers, tracks everything involved in thesoftware development process from feature requests andrequirements to design revisions and actual changes in thecode with TestTrack Pro.
Surround SCM gives developers and managers completecontrol over the software change process, a clear view of thestate of files and artifacts, and streamlined parallel develop-ment. For example, using Surround SCM’s branching andautomatic merging, teams can work in parallel without beingconcerned about code changes negatively impacting oneanother. Surround SCM’s workflow helps teams move filesthrough a review process and trigger builds and other activ-ities without human intervention.
TestTrack TCM helps managers and QA analysts managethe software testing process, including test case creation,scheduling, execution, measurement and reporting.
QA Wizard Pro automates the functional and regressiontesting of Web and Windows applications, letting QA teamstest more of an application in less time. With QA Wizard Prorunning automated scripts, your QA analysts can spend less
time running manual regression tests and more time testingnew features or complicated functionality. Another benefit ofautomating tests is in support of continuous integration. Thedevelopment team can use the test suites developed by theQA team to automate smoke tests as part of nightly builds.
“Every Seapine product addresses a part of the life cycle,providing unique benefits to individual stakeholders andteams—but that’s only where it starts,” Riccetti says, point-ing out that ALM integration is baked deep into all the com-pany’s solutions. “Our tools integrate tightly with popularIDEs and with each other.”
For example, a developer working in Visual Studio canfully version control files, including linking source codechanges to defects, without opening another application. QAanalysts can store QA Wizard Pro scripts in Surround SCMand then check them out and attach them to a test case inTestTrack TCM. From there, they can schedule a time torun the scripts.
With Seapine solutions, you can quickly customize theworkflow to match the way you do business andadd the fields that make sense in your develop-ment environment, hence increasing your effi-ciency. With the workflow, you can ensure thateveryone follows your business rules everytime, which mitigates your risk.
What’s more, the company’s tools aredesigned around automation. You can moveitems through the process without human inter-action. You can control the status of an itembased on any criteria you want and even triggerexternal processes or scripts. Ultimately, this cancontribute to a reduced delivery time.
And then there’s seamless productivity. Because Seapine’stools integrate with popular IDEs and each other, developersdo not have to switch between applications. Application life-cycle management becomes less intrusive because develop-ers don’t have to switch applications to close a defect, checka file into source control or manually assign a work item toanother team member. Your architects, programmers andtesters can focus on designing, coding and QA instead.
“The need for integrated application life-cycle manage-ment tools exists at companies of all sizes, though some of thefeatures in our products, like LDAP integration, may be mostappreciated by larger enterprises,” explains Riccetti. “Mostpeople assume that enterprise applications require a complextechnology architecture and a large internal support invest-ment. Seapine’s tools are the exception to that rule. We havealways designed our products to be easy to configure and man-age, with an emphasis on optimizing speed-to-value. Small andmedium companies can implement our solutions without sig-nificant IT expenditure and an army of support staff.” o
Seapine Puts the ‘Pro’ in ‘Productivity’
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diamond sponsor
Richard RiccettiSeapine president and CEO
SPONSORED WHITE PAPER
A
ALM solutions allow all team members to worktogether, with users having access to vital data andresources relating to their particular role. The bestway to offer those resources is through a single
shared data model, like the one you find in MKS Integrity,MKS’ ALM platform. With one data model, the core disci-plines—software change and configuration management,requirements management, and test management—as wellas other data types can easily be configured and inter-related.
MKS Integrity is a multi-tier Java EE application with aWeb-based server, native and Web-based GUIs, a distributedartifact model, and a rich API for extensibility, explains PhilipC. Deck, chairman and CEO of MKS (www.mks.com). “At theheart of MKS Integrity is the single data model that it appliesin a consistent way to all ALM artifacts, their inter-relation-ships and change processes. This allows all participants,whether developers, product managers, testers or managers, tosee the same information adapted to their role. It allows onesource of truth for all application change, boosting the ease andbenefits of collaboration, process automation,process integrity and project management.”
MKS Integrity brings configuration manage-ment to both code and non-code artifacts…everything relating to your application. What’smore, MKS Integrity applies sophisticatedbranching, merging and reuse to every ALMartifact, including requirements, documenta-tion and test plans. Component reuse reallypays off in large-scale engineering projectswhere a core set of components can be sharedand adapted to many product versions and mar-kets. MKS has gone farther than any ALM com-pany in recognizing that non-code artifacts require the samelevel of configuration sophistication as code.
Built for scalability, MKS Integrity has proven itselfacross major engineering and IT shops worldwide and isbuilt to support many thousands of globally distributed userssecurely, efficiently and transparently. For globally distrib-uted organizations, MKS Integrity offers a Federated Serv-er Architecture, using proxy servers to cache large artifactsand push updates to them in real-time, ensuring localresponsiveness regardless of geography.
“Typically, we offer MKS Integrity for a specific use with-in the ALM landscape,” Deck says. “But the customer willalmost always immediately configure other processes andartifacts because the ability to extend the platform’s datamodel is easy, compelling and requires no additional licens-ing. Once managers become familiar with the ‘IntegrityConcepts’ of items, relationship and process controls, theycan quickly model their entire ALM environment withoutmaking any additional deployments or purchases.”
MKS Integrity is “enterprise-centric”—it thinks about thewhole business instead of just programmers or the constraintsof a specific IDE. This is key for managers who want visibili-ty into the entire life cycle. MKS Integrity’s single data modelfacilitates flexible and effective data mining across the devel-opment life cycle right within the application, as nanagers canget real-time feedback on project status, productivity and ahost of other development metrics.
MKS Integrity lets organizations adopt agile developmentmethodologies while also managing traditional methodolo-gies. Indeed, MKS Integrity simplifies the transition from tra-ditional processes and practices to more agile ones, throughits process flexibility. Its life-cycle management capabilitiesalso ensure that application changes and IT processes are doc-umented, auditable and can be repeated, ensuring effectiveIT regulatory compliance that can bring companies in linewith Sarbanes-Oxley, the Life Sciences industry’s FDA 21CFR Part 11, healthcare’s HIPAA, Canada’s Bill 198, thefinancial industry’s Basel II, and Asia/Pacific’s JSOX.
According to MKS, most IT organizationstoday are spending up to 75% of their applicationdevelopment budget on maintenance activitiesand only 25% on new innovation. Applicationrationalization and consolidation is also importantwhen companies undergo mergers and acquisi-tions. When connected directly to life-cycle data,MKS Integrity’s Portfolio capability givesCIOsvisibility over their application portfolio andrelated development and maintenance activities.
MKS offers special benefits to large andsmall companies. For large customers, enter-prise scalability and security is critical, and the
component reuse capabilities facilitate SOA and SoftwareProduct Lines methodologies. In small companies, MKSIntegrity’s single product architecture allows easy deploy-ment, low maintenance and administration costs, along withletting all ALM participants collaborate effectively. A flexi-ble pricing model makes MKS Integrity very affordable.
“We are committed to the single product strategy in thelong term because of the compelling benefits to customerproductivity and the ability to best leverage our internaldevelopment resources.” Deck says. “About 80% of ourdevelopment investments go to the general platform ratherthan any particular ALM discipline. We want to keep raisingthe bar with scalability, so load balancing is on the way. Wewant to take a leadership position in test management theway we have with requirements management and softwareconfiguration management already, so much more test-spe-cific capability is on the way. We also want to push our par-allel development model much further and are investing sig-nificant new development dollars in that area.” o
Integrity Is the Key to Success for MKS
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platinum sponsor — ALM Leader
Philip C. DeckMKS chairman and CEO
SPONSORED WHITE PAPER
By its very nature, Agile development is fastpaced. Get the code written, see what you’ve got,get feedback from your customers and move on.Because of the speed of these cycles, managing
the life cycle of Agile projects can seem like a near impos-sibility. But through its Agile ALM solutions, Rally Soft-ware helps make the impossible possible. Rally’s Agile life-cycle management solutions unite project and programmanagement with requirements management and execu-tive-level reporting to enable teams and organizations todramatically shorten development cycles, increase qualityand speed value delivery.
“Rally ensures a continuous flow of value by givingteams the real-time communication and decision supportneeded to guide software project success,” says RichardLeavitt, Rally’s vice president of product marketing. “Wehelp you unite Agile project management by trackingrequirements, tests, and defects for simpler, low-burdenmanagement of software projects.”
VISIBILITY ACROSS PROJECTS AND PROGRAMS Rally (www.rallydev.com) aligns the deliveriesof development teams with business goals byextending the benefits of rapid, iterativedevelopment processes across the enterprise.Thanks to Rally, you can scale Agile develop-ment in larger organizations with concurrentor interdependent projects because Rally’ssolutions manage capacity and dependenciesacross products, teams and organizationalboundaries and gain visibility into the status ofall development initiatives.
Rally’s solutions also let you build prioritized require-ments backlogs that keep teams focused on the highestvalue features. Distributed teams on large projects canmanage backlogs, decompose and schedule requirements,trace dependencies, and track feature completeness. Rallyalso provides deep support for test teams as they shift towork collaboratively with the Agile development team.Testers get the tracking tools they need to provide real-time test results in-step with the development cycle.
RICH INTEGRATIONS WITH ROLE-BASED TOOLS The Rally Integration Hub connects your role-based toolsin a common repository so timely information flowsbetween all departments involved in the idea-to-deliverylife cycle. Rally helps teams collaborate across all roles inthe Agile software development life cycle. For example,Rally delivers full-featured defect and issue tracking fordevelopers, testers and other stakeholders. Users can fur-
ther extend Rally’s defect management features with inte-gration connectors to common open-source and commer-cial bug and issue tracking tools for scheduling and statustracking. These connectors make it easy to extend existingenterprise tooling investments, reduce implementationcosts and seamlessly unify technical and role-based silosinto Rally’s collaborative Agile dashboard.
ENGAGING COMMUNITIES TO BUILD BETTER PRODUCTS The adoption of Agile methods brings new opportunitiesto partner with customers and accelerate innovation tohelp them become more responsive. Rally enables prod-uct managers and development teams to plan and launcha continuous flow of high-value releases that win morebusiness. Product managers and product owners can easi-ly communicate feature roadmaps tied to customerrequests and win/loss data and track and communicatedevelopment status.
“A lack of understanding of priorities cancause missed customer expectations and aninability to respond to the changing needs ofthe market,” Leavitt explains. “With Rally, youcan select and deliver the highest value fea-tures while providing customers full visibilityinto development status to drive customerloyalty.”
INCREMENTAL ADOPTION OF AGILE PRACTICES Rally helps teams of all sizes incrementallyadopt and scale Agile from small projects todistributed, multi-team programs. Rally offers
two editions to match an organization’s size and stage ofAgile adoption. The first is Rally Community Edition,which makes it easy for smaller teams or pilot teams tomanage releases and iterations without undue overheadand complexity. Rally Community is free for up to 10 usersand includes Agile project management, requirementsmanagement, test management and defect managementfor a single release team.
Rally Enterprise Edition helps teams smoothly coordi-nate the additional roles, tools and dependencies in multi-team programs or cross-cutting initiatives. Rally Enter-prise is a complete Agile life-cycle management platformthat supports multi-team development with integrations toexisting systems. It is available in both on-demand and on-premise deployment options.
Rally’s end-to-end solutions for Agile development alsoinclude Agile University, the largest online source for Agiletraining, and Agile Commons, the largest collaborative Web2.0 community dedicated to advancing software agility. o
Rally Puts AgilityInto the App Life Cycle
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platinum sponsor — ALM Leader
Richard LeavittRally, VP of product marketing
SPONSORED WHITE PAPER
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The ALM space has been dominated by traditionalpoint solutions focused on specific life-cycle stages,relegating the complete view to custom and costlypoint-to-point integrations. But that is not the case
anymore: Urbancode’s industry-leading AnthillPro(www.anthillpro.com) provides a holistic view of the life-cycle processes (such as build, deploy, test), along withsecure, centrally managed automated processes. AnthillProextracts and correlates the information that is typicallylocked within point tools.
It starts with automation. AnthillPro lets teams turn theirmanual, script-driven processes into reusable services. Thisway, what used to be error-prone manual processes—acces-sible to a select few—becomes transparent, repeatable andefficient. Moreover, they are accessible to the entire teamvia self-service. Imagine, for instance, automated processesthat distribute a build across multiple machines to drivedown build times; or deploy an n-tiered application acrossmultiple machines (with each tier deployed to a differentmachine); or distribute tests across multiplemachines. Sound complicated? It doesn’t haveto be... if you have tools that make it easy.
AnthillPro is “a full-service tool for building,testing and deploying applications,” according toa Senior Release Engineer at an independentsoftware company. AnthillPro ’s standardizedplatform has let him extend ALM practices andachieve measurable gains: “In our implementa-tion, we took advantage of AnthillPro’s frame-work for creating reusable library jobs and work-flows, which has proven to significantly shortenthe time required to setup new Ruby projects.”
It is typical to find organizations using AnthillPro with avariety of languages and development platforms. “AnthillPro isbuild-tool and language agnostic. It’s not uncommon for a cus-tomer to have 40% of their project on Java, 40% on theMicrosoft platform and 20% on every technology introducedsince 1960,” explained Urbancode President Maciej Zawadzki.
In addition to integrations with IDEs like Eclipse andVisual Studio, AnthillPro integrates with many ALM tools,including SCM and issue-tracking, test automation, changemanagement and project management systems. This letsAnthillPro extract data from traditional point tools and cor-relate the data in one place—backed by powerful reportingfeatures. Imagine that a developer changed five source filesto fix two issues. AnthillPro aggregates the source codechanges and correlates them with the issues they affected.Additionally, integrations with testing tools allow AnthillProto point out that the source changes fixed two previously fail-ing tests, but caused one previously passing test to fail.
During the development stage, AnthillPro provides scal-
able continuous integration for the development team. Thepayoff: Not only do developers avoid integration hell, butthey also get quick feedback on the quality of their codechanges. “It is typical to see the turnaround time on buildrequests drop from more than 90 minutes to less than 20minutes after a roll-out,” said Zawadzki.
“Most of our customers use AnthillPro to do much morethan simply automate a continuous integration build fortheir development teams,” Zawadzki said. “In addition toautomating the build, they automate unit testing, deploy-ments to a test environment, orchestration of the functionaltests, and deployments to production. AnthillPro enablesthem to extend the benefits of continuous integration intothe entire application development life cycle.”
From the ground up, AnthillPro scales to enterprise lev-els. “Many of our customers use globally distributed devel-opment teams with thousands of developers. Having fea-tures that make this efficient is very important,” explainedZawadzki. Issues of security, while important in all enter-
prise-scale deployments, are essential withglobally distributed development. AnthillProprovides a secure system that plugs into existingsecurity infrastructure investments such asLDAP or Active Directory for authenticationand fine-grained, role-based permissions.
Such strong security features and support forautomated testing and deployment are a naturalfit for organizations engaged in offshore devel-opment. Consider a common situation, wheredevelopment teams are offshore with a contrac-tor, but your company’s QA servers are locatedin the United States and off limits to the con-
tractor. If the contractor’s development teams can’t directlyaccess the QA servers, they need to ask someone in the U.S.to deploy the artifacts onto the server, run the automated testsuite, and then communicate the results back. The turn-around from request to test result is typically a minimum of24 hours—and can be considerably longer if there’s a prob-lem with the build. Using AnthillPro, the integrity of your QAservers is maintained even while automated processes deploythe contractor’s build artifacts to the appropriate QA server,run automated test suites, and provide results. The benefit: Aprocess taking 24 hours is often reduced to under an hour(depending on the duration of the automated tests).
Although other process automation tools exist, they don’tprovide the traceability that AnthillPro guarantees. Anthill-Pro’s first-class representation of a software project’s move-ment through the life cycle guarantees traceability, a holisticview of the life cycle, and correlated information extractedfrom point tools. No other single system can provide theend-to-end traceability of Urbancode’s AnthillPro. o
True ALM FunctionalityWith Urbancode AnthillPro
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Look at your development teams. Chances are,they’re using many tools that add to the complexityof the application development life cycle. Some toolsfocus on solving a single problem during a particular
phase of the development life cycle. Other tools are moregeneral, but only do part of the job of delivering quality soft-ware on time and within budget. While this “many-tools”approach is traditional, it’s not good enough. Kovair showsyou how to make ALM more than a collection of design,development, testing and deployment tools.
“ALM is a true ecosystem of integrated multi-vendortools used by different groups independent of geography,organization, technology and function, where cross-toolinformation flows through automated processes, relatedwith each other by traceable relations and measured andviewed by consolidated reporting,” says Sky Basu, Kovair’sCTO. Kovair Global Lifecycle solution (www.kovair.com)comprises three tightly integrated components to serve yourapplication development needs.
The first component is the Kovair LifecycleApplications, a set of Web-architected manage-ment applications that cover everything fromrequirements management to test management,defect management to release management tochange management, and even help-desk man-agement. Having a common browser-basedinterface and a common data repository forthese functions helps your organization cover abroader area than any single solution. Your teammembers can extend the core applications func-tionality using a drag-and-drop interface withouthaving to write a single line of code.
The second component is the Kovair Process AutomationTechnology, also known as Omniprocess. This task-basedprocess engine enables parallelism in ways that simply aren’tpossible in a state-based process engine. Users can create,automate and enforce any workflow process for any built-inor customer application using a Visio-like drag-and-dropworkflow designer without the need for any code generation.
The third component is the SOA-based Omnibus Integra-tion Bus. Omnibus can integrate any tool—independent ofvendor, location, technology platform or firewall. Unlike point-to-point integration, which many ALM vendors promote, thescalable Omnibus architecture offers substantial savings in costand effort of coding, management, and maintenance of theintegrations. For example, without Omnibus, to have a com-plete point-to-point integration between six standalone tools,you will need 16 different custom integrations. UsingOmnibus, you’ll only need six adapters—and you’ll only needto update one adapter if a tool is swapped out.
You can see how Kovair’s technology works by envisioning
a corporate Web site that is also used for submitting ideas andsuggestions on how the site can be improved. By usingOmnibus to integrate the deployed Web site with the KovairLifecycle Applications, submitted ideas are automaticallyshared with Kovair’s built-in Ideation Application. The Kovairsystem provides an automated workflow for review andapproval by product management, after which they’re con-verted and elaborated into requirements. The integration caneven extend to e-mail and other communications systems.
Using Kovair’s Requirements Management application,product managers amd marketers can create and manage allrequirements. By creating and automating the review andapproval process using Omniprocess, requirements follow aconsistent methodology without any additional overhead.
The requirements are packaged in a development pack-age and assigned to the engineering group. Perhaps differ-ent tools are used, such as Rational Rose for modeling, Visu-al Studio IDE for coding, Perforce SCM for softwareconfiguration management, and HP/Mercury Quality Cen-
ter for test management. Using Omnibus,Kovair integrates with all of these tools.
For example, while creating UML designs inRational Rose, your architects can create trace-ability relationships between individual UMLcomponents and requirements in Kovair. Fromwithin the Visual Studio IDE, programmers cansee the coding tasks assigned to them. They canalso link source code files in Perforce to therequirements in Kovair, and UML componentsin Rational Rose. Kovair’s bus provides the inte-gration between Rational Rose and PerforceSCM. Testers using Quality Center can create
test cases. Since the test cases are managed by Kovair, testplans can be traced back to the requirements.
Kovair’s release management process automatically syn-chronizes with the other ALM processes. For example, youcould specify that integration testing can’t start unless theunit testing of individual requirements is complete. Therelease management also integrates with Microsoft Projectfor scheduling and resource planning.
Once the release of the product reaches the end users, thecycle of ideas/suggestions repeats itself. However, users alsosubmit changes related to defects, enhancements and changerequests using Kovair’s Change Management application.
“Kovair is working towards the distinction of being the‘Most Connected Ecosystem of ALM Tools’ by the end of2008,” Basu says. “We already have adapters for most of thebest-of-breed tools from Rational, Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard. We have adapters for modeling, IDEs, softwareconfiguration management, test management, and projectand resource management.” o
With Kovair, ALM Is the Sum of Its Parts
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FFrreeqquueennttllyy AAsskkeedd QQuueessttiioonn ffoorr RReeqquuiirreemmeennttss MMaannaaggeemmeenntt bbyy KKoovvaaiirr GGlloobbaall LLiiffeeccyyccllee
Kovair Software, Inc. • www.kovair.com • 408-262-0200 • [email protected]
compare two versions of a Requirement and shows you clearly themodifications includin additions and deletions in the selected versions.14. Can we trace a given requirement to Design documents /
Use case/ Test case/ Source files…Yes, this can be achieved by means of Kovair Traceability Relationships.Traceability allows you to create relations between Requirements withother items either tracked within Kovair or tracked by some external tools.Traceability to a source file in a software confi uration mana ement toolcan be achieved by means of Kovair Traceability Relationships with theinte rated Version Control system. Currently Kovair is inte rated withClearCase, Perforce and Subversion confi uration mana ement systemsbased on customer preferences for usin any one of these.
RReeppoorrtt iinn15. What are the reporting featuresReportin in Kovair Global Lifecycle can be done in the followin ways:
HTML Report: A list of items can be confi ured usin userdefined Views and Filters. These reports can be directly printed.Excel Report: A HTML list can be quickly exported to Excel andfurther manipulated to create a report.Crysta l Report: Inte ration of Kovair Global Lifecycle with CrystalReports application allows users to enerate reports. Thesereports have drilldown capabilities that can be viewed and printedfrom the browser. Kovair also supports creatin custom CrystalReports usin Crystal Reports application. The applicationenerates ‘.rtf’ file, which are uploaded in Kovair Global Lifecycle
for display.Kovair Word Report: Completely formatted Word Documentscan be enerated based on user-defined templates such asMRD’s, SRS, and RFP’s. In a sin le document, different sectionscan be made usin different Custom Filters and different sets ofinformation. For Kovair Word Report, users et complete controlover ‘which field to show’ includin Custom Fields for eachsection, where items are controlled by Custom Filters. Real timestatus reports can be produced on demand at any time.
16. Can the software produce the following (or somethingsimilar to the following)
Marketing Requirements DocumentYes, we can create a Word Report for this.Impact reportsYes, we can prepare a Word Report called ‘Chan e ImpactAnalysis’ where it displays Requirements (cate orized byRelease), and a ainst each Requirement, impacts are calculatedfor linked Use Cases, Development Packa es, and Test Cases.Version reportYes, a report can be created for selected Requirements with thecomplete version history for each.Roadmap reportYes, we can prepare a Word Report called ‘Product RoadmapPlannin ’. The report displays Requirements rouped by theirRelease and Product Type. For each Requirement, apart from itsfields, other information like Comments, linked items(Development Packa e, Use Cases, and Test Cases) aredisplayed.Progress reportYes, a pro ress report can be created with information about thecompleted and open process tasks.
TTaasskkss17. How is a task definedThe Task based processin of Requirements makes Kovair GlobalLifecycle unique amon all Requirement Mana ement tools. There arethree ways that tasks may be created in Kovair.
First, Kovair Task Mana ement application allows users to create Tasksmanually in the context of a Requirement and assi n it to different people(Users or Roles). Tasks from different Projects appear on a user’s homepa e. New Tasks can be created from any Requirement and Tasks can
be forwarded to maintain a chain of Tasks.
Second,when a Process is defined and automated.
And the third way to enerate Tasks automatically is by definin as rule and implementin it usin Kovair’s Policy en ine.
18. Can we monitor the progress of tasksYes, the execution of Requirement Mana ement Process can be
determines what fields are to be displayed in the List. The ‘Process View’can be defined usin system pre-defined fields Process Step, Activity,Owner, Process Start Date, Process Status, and Process Completion/EndDate.
NNoott ii ff iiccaatt iioonn19. Can we have emails based on different eventsYes, Kovair allows a robust event based notification system. Various
event a custom notification mail may be created with macro variableswhich are replaced by contextual value durin runtime.20. Can we send emails based on complex conditionYes, Kovair has a Business Policy en ine which allows you to automatemany business rules. Usin the Policy en ine you can define complexconditions aemails alon with create task, start/ stop process, create traceabilit .
IInnttee rraatt iioonn wwii tthh ootthheerr TToooollss21.
other documents/test plans/use casesYes, Traceability Relationships need to be defined amon the abovespecified entities Requirement, Use Case, Test Plan, Desi n
22. How easily will the tool integrate with other softwarecurrently in place here
olo y provides a vendor-neutral ALMplatform, which allows the inte ration of standard or home rown ALMtools usin Kovair Adapters. It ensures cross-lifecycle transparency,
-level processes automation and correspondence ofactivities across disciplines.
AAddmmiinniissttrraatt iioonn23. Are there different roles/user types, depe nding on what
that user needs to see/editYes, Roles or User Types can be defined in Kovair Global Lifecycle. Whatthat Role or User Type should view/edit is mana ed from theadministrative function Access Group. Access Group is formed by a setof defined access ri hts or privile es. Those privile es consider whatrecords a roup member can view, and what they can edit. So, byassociatin the Role or User Type with Access Group, view or editaccesses on Requirements can be controlled.24. Can ownership of requirements be associated with a
particular role of userYes, a process can be defined for Requirement to implement thisfunctionality. For example we can create an Activity as Review and assi nit Durin execution, when the BusinessAnalyst ets this Task, until and unless he/she sets the RequirementStatus as Approved, the Process will not enerate the next Task foranother role and the Business Analyst remains the owner of theRequirement.25. What is the estimated time frame from selection to
implementation2 3 weeks includin confi urations and trainin .
ALM Ads_WP 8/19/08 10:10 AM Page 25
FFrreeqquueennttllyy AAsskkeedd QQuueessttiioonn ffoorr RReeqquuiirreemmeennttss MMaannaaggeemmeenntt bbyy KKoovvaaiirr GGlloobbaall LLiiffeeccyyccllee
Kovair Software, Inc. • www.kovair.com • 408-262-0200 • [email protected]
his article addresses some of the frequently asked questionsregarding Requirements Management performed by Kovair. In mostof the cases the same answers are applicable to other ALM Entities
created and managed in Kovair including Use Cases, Test cases, ChangeRequests and Releases.
RReeqquuii rreemmeenntt DDeeff iinnii tt iioonn1. How do you add a Requirement to KovairIn Kovair Global Lifecycle, you can define and add a Requirement in anyof following ways:
�� Using Rich Text Editor. You can open a Microsoft Word documentor copy-paste a portion of formatted text to the Rich Text Editor.
�� Submitting from your Corporate Website or Portal�� Sending by Email�� Importing from Microsoft Word Document�� Importing from Microsoft Excel spreadsheet�� Importing form a CSV file with configurable format�� Using any third party Requirement Management and other tools
to define Requirements; and in real–time synchronizing the datawith Kovair.
2. Are there specific attributes for each requirementYes, there are few System defined attributes for Requirements but moreimportantly Kovair Global Lifecycle allows you to create as many user-defined or Custom Fields or attributes for the Requirements. AttributeFields can be created based on the following data types some of whichare typical but others (highlighted here) are unique to Kovair and lend tothe power of Kovair configurability:Date, Date-Time, Float, Float with 2 Decimal, Integer, Custom Lookup(Single and Multiple), Multi-Line Text, Single-Line Text, Calculated Field ,Grid Field , Rich Text , Electronic Signature Field , Summary Field , andRelation Type Field .3. Can requirements be prioritizedYes, prioritization can be done manually by setting the Priority attribute foreach Requirement or it can be done in a more structured and dynamicway:Collaborative Ranking
Using this feature, the evaluators can individually rate a Requirementbased on certain criteria. This helps in arranging the Requirements inthe Priority List based on the score that each one has received fromthe evaluators during the evaluation phase
Decision Support System (What If Analysis)It supports business and organizational decision-making activities andhelps the organization to prioritize requirements based on certainconstraints into different buckets, e.g. Releases
4. Does Kovair commit us to a specific philosophy ofrequirement management
No, Kovair Global Lifecycle is so flexible in terms of configurability that itcan be fully customized to accommodate the client’s philosophy ofmanaging requirements. Kovair does not follow any specific philosophy ofRequirements Management; rather we implement the customer’sphilosophy into the tool. Kovair has been configured to follow Waterfall,Agile and many other proprietary methodologies.5. Can we define a workflow for requirement revision
process within the productYes, Kovair application has an inbuilt drag and drop Visual Workflow /Process designer that allows users to define a Task-based Process fornot only Requirements but for each of the phases of the ApplicationLifecycle and automate them. During the Process execution, itautomatically generates Tasks for the Roles or users as defined in theProcess. Here is an example of a custom Requirements process:
6. Can you keep track of costs (man hours and $$$) for eachrequirement
Yes, there are a number of attributes provided by the tool, out of the box,for tracking the cost (Planned as well as Actual) of each Requirement. Forexample Planned Cost, Actual Cost, Planned Duration (in hrs), ActualDuration (in Hrs), Planned Work, Actual Work, etc. Additionally Kovair letsyou create Custom Fields, of various data types that also can be used inthis regard.7. How is a change request against a requirement handledChange Request can be created as an entity in Kovair Global Lifecycleand just like Requirements, all the features will be available for ChangeRequest as well. Kovair can be configured to handle a Change Requestprocess which is typically different from a Requirement Managementprocess. Some of these changes are new enhancements which will endup being new requirements and others may be related to existingrequirements. Using Kovair’s traceability relation the links may be setupbetween the Changes and related Requirements.
HHiieerraarrcchhyy ooff RReeqquuii rreemmeennttss8. Is it possible to show interdependencies b etween various
requirementsYes, interdependencies among various requirements can be shown ineither of the following waysCreating Sub Items
Kovair Global Lifecycle lets you create sub requirements and thenesting of sub items can go up to n-levels.
Creating Traceability RelationKovair Global Lifecycle lets you create Traceability Relationshipsamong the records of the same entity, e.g. Requirement using theRelation Type field through different kinds of dependency structureslike –�� Temporal (Requirement ‘X’ needs to be implemented before
Requirement ‘Y’)�� Logical (Requirement ‘X’ cannot be implemented without
Requirement ‘Y’)�� Value-related (Cost of ‘X’ goes down if implemented together with
‘Y’) etc.9. Can a requirement have more than one parentIf you are using the Sub Item functionality, one requirement can have onlyone parent. But if you are using many-to-many Traceability Relation Typefield then the same requirement can be a child of multiple parentrequirements - to whichever it is linked by means of the relation “Parent –Child Relation”.
TTrraacceeaabbii ll ii ttyy10. Can you keep track of who edited and whenYes, to keep track of the latest change in a Requirement, Last ModifiedBy and Last Modification Date are the two attributes provided by KovairGlobal Lifecycle, out of the box, that keeps track of the user and date thatdid the change. Additionally the tool provides Change History for eachRequirement that keeps track of who, when and what has been changed,and what was the old value and what is the new value.11. Can you view the entire life cycle of a requirement –
viewing all interdependencies along the wayYes, Kovair Global Lifecycle supports Traceability among the differententities (e.g. Requirements, Use Case, Test Case, Issues and Release),by means of which you can link one entity item to another and therebyestablish a chain which can be used to view the entire Lifecycle of aRequirement, viewing all interdependencies along the way.12. Can you view everything each requirement is attached to
affectYes, Kovair lets you define a relation as impacting and thereby providesthe facility to do an Impact Analysis.13. Is there version controlYes, Kovair Global Lifecycle distinguishes between Updates and a trueVersion Change to a Requirement. Versioning Requirements triggersaudit trails and traceability impacts. Each version also stores its contextualthreaded Comments with all attachments. In addition, Kovair lets you
T
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Kovair Software, Inc. • www.kovair.com • 408-262-0200 • [email protected]
compare two versions of a Requirement and shows you clearly themodifications including additions and deletions in the selected versions.14. Can we trace a given requirement to Design documents /
Use case/ Test case/ Source files…Yes, this can be achieved by means of Kovair Traceability Relationships.Traceability allows you to create relations between Requirements withother items either tracked within Kovair or tracked by some external tools.Traceability to a source file in a software configuration management toolcan be achieved by means of Kovair Traceability Relationships with theintegrated Version Control system. Currently Kovair is integrated withClearCase, Perforce and Subversion configuration management systemsbased on customer preferences for using any one of these.
RReeppoorrtt iinngg15. What are the reporting featuresReporting in Kovair Global Lifecycle can be done in the following ways:
�� HTML Report: A list of items can be configured using userdefined Views and Filters. These reports can be directly printed.
�� Excel Report: A HTML list can be quickly exported to Excel andfurther manipulated to create a report.
�� Crysta l Report: Integration of Kovair Global Lifecycle with CrystalReports application allows users to generate reports. Thesereports have drilldown capabilities that can be viewed and printedfrom the browser. Kovair also supports creating custom CrystalReports using Crystal Reports application. The applicationgenerates ‘.rtf’ file, which are uploaded in Kovair Global Lifecyclefor display.
�� Kovair Word Report: Completely formatted Word Documentscan be generated based on user-defined templates such asMRD’s, SRS, and RFP’s. In a single document, different sectionscan be made using different Custom Filters and different sets ofinformation. For Kovair Word Report, users get complete controlover ‘which field to show’ including Custom Fields for eachsection, where items are controlled by Custom Filters. Real timestatus reports can be produced on demand at any time.
16. Can the software produce the following (or somethingsimilar to the following)
�� Marketing Requirements DocumentYes, we can create a Word Report for this.
�� Impact reportsYes, we can prepare a Word Report called ‘Change ImpactAnalysis’ where it displays Requirements (categorized byRelease), and against each Requirement, impacts are calculatedfor linked Use Cases, Development Packages, and Test Cases.
�� Version reportYes, a report can be created for selected Requirements with thecomplete version history for each.
�� Roadmap reportYes, we can prepare a Word Report called ‘Product RoadmapPlanning’. The report displays Requirements grouped by theirRelease and Product Type. For each Requirement, apart from itsfields, other information like – Comments, linked items(Development Package, Use Cases, and Test Cases) aredisplayed.
�� Progress reportYes, a progress report can be created with information about thecompleted and open process tasks.
TTaasskkss17. How is a task definedThe Task based processing of Requirements makes Kovair GlobalLifecycle unique among all Requirement Management tools. There arethree ways that tasks may be created in Kovair.
First, Kovair Task Management application allows users to create Tasksmanually in the context of a Requirement and assign it to different people(Users or Roles). Tasks from different Projects appear on a user’s homepage. New Tasks can be created from any Requirement and Tasks can
be forwarded to maintain a chain of Tasks.
Second, Tasks can also be generated automatically for each Requirementwhen a Process is defined and automated.
And the third way to generate Tasks automatically is by defining abusiness rule and implementing it using Kovair’s Policy engine.18. Can we monitor the progress of tasksYes, the execution of Requirement Management Process can bemonitored by defining ‘Process View’. View is a system feature thatdetermines what fields are to be displayed in the List. The ‘Process View’can be defined using system pre-defined fields – Process Step, Activity,Owner, Process Start Date, Process Status, and Process Completion/EndDate.
NNoott ii ff iiccaatt iioonn19. Can we have emails based on different eventsYes, Kovair allows a robust event based notification system. Variousevents for Requirements Management are defined (e.g. RequirementCreated, Edited, Comment Added, My comment replied) and for eachevent a custom notification mail may be created with macro variableswhich are replaced by contextual value during runtime.20. Can we send emails based on complex conditionYes, Kovair has a Business Policy engine which allows you to automatemany business rules. Using the Policy engine you can define complexconditions and multiple actions. The actions include sending notificationemails along with create task, start/ stop process, create traceability.
IInntteeggrraatt iioonn wwii tthh ootthheerr TToooollss21. Can we have true associations between a requirement and
other documents/test plans/use casesYes, Traceability Relationships need to be defined among the abovespecified entities – Requirement, Use Case, Test Plan, DesignDocuments, etc22. How easily will the tool integrate with other software
currently in place hereKovair Omnibus Integration technology provides a vendor-neutral ALMplatform, which allows the integration of standard or home grown ALMtools using Kovair Adapters. It ensures cross-lifecycle transparency,macro and micro-level processes automation and correspondence ofactivities across disciplines.
AAddmmiinniissttrraatt iioonn23. Are there different roles/user types, depe nding on what
that user needs to see/editYes, Roles or User Types can be defined in Kovair Global Lifecycle. Whatthat Role or User Type should view/edit is managed from theadministrative function – Access Group. Access Group is formed by a setof defined access rights or privileges. Those privileges consider whatrecords a group member can view, and what they can edit. So, byassociating the Role or User Type with Access Group, view or editaccesses on Requirements can be controlled.24. Can ownership of requirements be associated with a
particular role of userYes, a process can be defined for Requirement to implement thisfunctionality. For example we can create an Activity as Review and assignit to a role called Business Analyst. During execution, when the BusinessAnalyst gets this Task, until and unless he/she sets the RequirementStatus as Approved, the Process will not generate the next Task foranother role and the Business Analyst remains the owner of theRequirement.25. What is the estimated time frame from selection to
implementation2 – 3 weeks including configurations and training.
ALM Ads_WP 8/19/08 10:10 AM Page 25
FFrreeqquueennttllyy AAsskkeedd QQuueessttiioonn ffoorr RReeqquuiirreemmeennttss MMaannaaggeemmeenntt bbyy KKoovvaaiirr GGlloobbaall LLiiffeeccyyccllee
Kovair Software, Inc. • www.kovair.com • 408-262-0200 • [email protected]
his article addresses some of the frequently asked questionsre ardin Requirements Mana ement performed by Kovair. In mostof the cases the same answers are applicable to other ALM Entities
created and mana ed in Kovair includin Use Cases, Test cases, Chan eRequests and Releases.
RReeqquuii rreemmeenntt DDeeff iinnii tt iioonn1. How do you add a Requirement to KovairIn Kovair Global Lifecycle, you can define and add a Requirement in anof followin ways:
Usin Rich Text Editor. You can open a Microsoft Word documentor cop -paste a portion of formatted text to the Rich Text Editor.Submittin from your Corporate Website or PortalSendin by EmailImportin from Microsoft Word DocumentImportin from Microsoft Excel spreadsheetImportin form a CSV file with confi urable formatUsin any third party Requirement Mana ement and other toolsto define Requirements; and in real time synchronizin the datawith Kovair.
2. Are there specific attributes for each requirementYes, there are few System defined attributes for Requirements but moreimportantly Kovair Global Lifecycle allows you to create as many user-defined or Custom Fields or attributes for the Requirements. AttributeFields can be created based on the followin data types some of whichare typical but others (hi hli hted here) are unique to Kovair and lend tothe power of Kovair confi urability:Date, Date-Time, Float, Float with 2 Decimal, Inte er, Custom Lookup(Sin le and Multiple), Multi-Line Text, Sin le-Line Text, Calculated Field ,Grid Field , Rich Text , Electronic Signature Field , Summary Field , andRelation Type Field .3. Can requirements be prioritizedYes, prioritization can be done manually by settin the Priority attribute foreach Requirement or it can be done in a more structured and dynamicway:Collaborative Ranking
Usin this feature, the evaluators can individually rate a Requirementbased on certain criteria. This helps in arran in the Requirements inthe Priority List based on the score that each one has received fromthe evaluators durin the evaluation phase
Decision Support System (What If Analysis)It supports business and or anizational decision-makin activities andhelps the or anization to prioritize requirements based on certainconstraints into different buckets, e. . Releases
4. Does Kovair commit us to a specific philosophy ofrequirement management
No, Kovair Global Lifecycle is so flexible in terms of confi urability that itcan be fully customized to accommodate the client’s philosophy ofmana in requirements. Kovair does not follow any specific philosophy ofRequirements Mana ement; rather we implement the customer’sphilosophy into the tool. Kovair has been confi ured to follow Waterfall,A ile and many other proprietary methodolo ies.5. Can we define a workflow for requirement revision
process within the productYes, Kovair application has an inbuilt dra and drop Visual Workflow /Process desi ner that allows users to define a Task-based Process fornot only Requirements but for each of the phases of the ApplicationLifecycle and automate them. Durin the Process execution, itautomatically enerates Tasks for the Roles or users as defined in theProcess. Here is an example of a custom Requirements process:
6. Canrequirement
for trackin the cost (Planned as well as Actual) of each Requirement. Forexample Planned Cost, Actual Cost, Planned Duration (in hrs), ActualDuration (in Hrs), Planned Work, Actual Work, etc. Additionally Kovair letsyouthis re ard.7.Chan e Request can be created as an entity in Kovair Global Lifecycle
uirements, all the features will be available for Chan eRequest as well. Kovair can be confi ured to handle a Chan e Requestprocess which is typically different from a Requirement Mana ementprocess. Some of these chan es are new enhancements which will endup bein new requirements and others may be related to existinrequirements. Usin Kovair’s traceability relation the links may be setupbetween the Chan es and related Requirements.
HHiieerraarrcchhyy ooff RReeqquuii rreemmeennttss8. Is it possible to show interdependencies b etween various
requirementsYes, interdependencies amon various requirements can be shown ineither of the followin waysCreating Sub Items
create sub requirements and the-levels.
Creating Traceability RelationKovair Global Lifecycle lets you create Traceability Relationships
Relation Type field throu h different kinds of dependency structureslike
Temporal (Requirement ‘X’ needs to be implemented before
Lo ical (Requirement ‘X’ cannot be implemented without
Value-related (Cost of ‘X’ oes down if implemented to ether with‘Y’) etc.
9. Can a requirement have more than one parentIf you aone parent. But if you are usin man -to-many Traceability Relation Typefield then the same requirement can be a child of multiple parentrequirements - to whichever it is linked by means of the relation “ParentChild Relation”.
TTrraacceeaabbii ll ii ttyy10. Can you keep track of who edited and when
By and Last Modification Date are the two attributes provided by KovairGlobal Lifecycle, out of the box, that keeps track of the user and date thatdid the chan e. Additionally the tool provides Chan e History for eachRequirement that keeps track of who, when and what has been chan ed,and what was the old value and what is the new value.11. Can you view the entire life cycle of a requirement
viewing all interdependencies along the wayYes, Kovair Global Lifecycle supports Traceability amon the differententities (e. . Requirements, Use Case, Test Case, Issues and Release),
h you can link one entity item to another and therebyestablish a chain which can be used to view the entire Lifecycle of aRequirement, viewin all interdependencies alon the way.12. Can you view everything each requirement is attached to
affectYes, Kovair lets you define a relation as impactin and thereby providesthe facility to do an Impact Analysis.13. Is there version control
Version Chan e to a Requirement. Versionin Requirements tri ersaudit trails and traceability impacts. Each version also stores its contextualthreaded Comments with all attachments. In addition, Kovair lets you
T
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Forget scripts! For too many years, development teamshave had two choices when it comes to the build-test-deploy cycle: manual effort with each cycle, or brittle,hard-to-maintain scripts. Electric Cloud’s application
life-cycle management tools offer a better way: true automa-tion and acceleration, with traceability, reusability, centraliza-tion and management control.
“The front end of the software development process includestools like IDEs, requirements management systems and SCMsystems,” says Mike Maciag, Electric Cloud’s CEO. “The backend of the development process, however, has been largely over-looked. This is software production, consisting of build-test-deploy tasks. While most enterprise development teams havemade tool and process investments in the front end, productioninfrastructures are typically home-grown, comprised of manualscripts and internally developed tools. The reality is that thesesystems are expensive to maintain and difficult to standardizeacross an enterprise. Software production has become too slow,too hard to manage and too hard to understand.”
Electric Cloud’s bag of tricks encompassesthree award-winning solutions: ElectricComman-der, ElectricAccelerator and ElectricInsight.
ElectricCommander automates and managesthe software build-test-deploy process. No mat-ter which languages you’re programming in orwhich build tools you prefer, ElectricComman-der helps development organizations improvesoftware quality, boost developer productivityand reduce costs while enabling an agile, itera-tive development approach.
Unlike standalone, single-server continuousintegration tools, ElectricCommander has anextensible architecture that scales to support multiple teams,working in multiple locations and developing for multipleplatforms… with a single system.
And unlike homegrown systems, ElectricCommanderprovides a secure, robust solution that adapts to the way yourteams work, while requiring minimal administrative over-head to maintain. So, developers and build teams spend lesstime managing tools, scripts and servers and more timedelivering great software.
ElectricAccelerator is an award-winning software buildaccelerator that can correctly execute parallel builds acrossscalable clusters of standard hardware to reduce build timesby as much as 20 times. ElectricAccelerator’s patented tech-nology dynamically identifies and monitors dependencies soyou get fast and accurate builds.
Over the years, many manual parallel build approacheshave been tried. However, each suffers from the same funda-mental flaw: as the level of parallelism is increased, they gen-erate incorrect or broken builds. ElectricAccelerator’s auto-matic conflict detection and correction technologydetermines exactly which files were used to build every object
file, library or executable, such that when build steps are runout of order, it automatically reruns them in the correct order.ElectricAccelerator produces a correct build, even when scal-ing to dozens of nodes in the cluster.
ElectricInsight mines the output of ElectricAccelerator toprovide detailed information and reports on each job on eachnode of the build cluster. This helps users identify which jobsare being performed, when and with what files, instead ofmanually pouring over tens of thousands of lines of informa-tion in a build output file, Electric Cloud says that error detec-tion and performance tuning, which once took hours or days,can now be completed in seconds.
When used together, these solutions for automating, accelerat-ing and analyzing software production deliver dramatic results.
One of Electric Cloud’s customers, a game developmentcompany, had set up a continuous integration process that builtand tested their product as frequently as possible. However, itwas unable to handle the demands of the large product teamchecking in code for multiple platforms. With their home-
grown system, developers frequently only builtthe Windows platform on their local machinebefore checking in their code. As a result, codewas checked in that would cause the integrationbuild to fail on one or all of the other platforms.
Does that scenario seem familiar? Furthercomplicating the situation, there were interdepen-dencies between game components that causedeach group to potentially break the build withouteven knowing it. Each build breakage resulted inan hour to a full day of wasted productivity whilethe problem was resolved. At the end of eachmonth, the team generated a full release that gen-
erally resulted in a spike in build breakages. One spike resultedin over 300 build breakages in one month!
With ElectricAccelerator, the game developers saw a 75%reduction in build times. Right away, they could migrate to a“pre-flight” build and test approach, integrating and validatingon all target platforms through ElectricCommander. Develop-ers could see the results of code changes within 12 minutes, andwhen changes did break the pre-flight build, other developersweren’t affected. And because issues were found and correctedby the Developers, it immediately contributed to a 90%decrease in the number of broken integration builds.
“Our solutions provide visibility into the most important indi-cator of software development success: working code,” Maciagsays. “The software build is a leading indicator of project suc-cess. For a manager, this provides a clear indicator of whetherthe project is on track, if milestones are being met, and wherepotential problems may lie. In addition, our solutions make soft-ware production as fast, automated and repeatable as possible.We help you transform software production from a specializedprocess managed by a few experts, to a self-service, repeatable,push-button process executed by the developers themselves.” o
Electric Cloud Showsthe Silver Lining
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gold sponsor — Build Management
Mike MaciagElectric Cloud, CEO
OpenMake Software addresses an area in ALM thatis extremely critical but mostly misunderstood: theapplication build process. By managing more buildengines, such as MSBuild and Ant, OpenMake
Software represents the natural virtualization of the buildprocess derived directly from popular IDEs such as VisualStudio and Eclipse. OpenMake Software provides freeworkflow management with Mojo and addresses the entirebuild management challenge with its commercial-gradeMeister solution.
“Mojo orchestrates and schedules common developmentactivities in a workflow process model,” says Steve Taylor,OpenMake’s CTO. “For example, Mojo coordinates thechecking out of files from the SCM tool, the execution ofpre-written build scripts and the running of unit tests. Mojocan then deploy out to a Web server and receive notificationsof the whole process. Mojo helps you handle workflow activ-ities through scheduling or continuous integration process-ing. Out of the box, we provide activity plug-ins that can inte-grate with any of the major SCM tools, working with toolslike JUnit and NUnit. Integrations into the daily activities ofa development team is what Mojo is all about.”
Managing workflow activities alone does not address thebuild quality and speed requirements needed for agile envi-ronments. Meister improves build quality and speed by man-aging build engines, synchronizing builds inside and outsideof IDEs, managing dependencies, and providing continuousintegration build scripts. “Meister helps you become moreagile by extending IDE build functionality directly into thecontinuous integration build. IDEs provide powerful capabil-ities when you’re inside of their environment, but agilemethodologies need to deliver incremental changes that canbe pushed out and beyond the IDE. Meister delivers contin-uous integration build scripts that adapt to IDE changes foraccurate build processing, and speeds up builds by rebuildingonly the objects that have changed, called build avoidance.”
While your IDE can manage a refactoring change or therenaming of a file, the underlying scripts that are usuallyimplemented aren’t flexible enough to manage an entirecomplex system. That’s where Meister’s ability to generatecontinuous integration build scripts come in. You make yourchanges in the IDE and Meister pulls that information atbuild time, generating the scripts to run the compile.
Meister also provides a clear audit trail showing preciselywhat source code and libraries were used in the build, evenwhen the source code and libraries aren’t in an SCM reposito-ry. This level of audit meets the highest level of IT compliancewith no extra work. Builds can be clearly separated betweendevelopment and production control, turning over the buildstep to individuals who may have less experience with runningbuilds. Learn more at openmakesoftware.com. o
Better AgileBuilds With Mojoand Meister
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bronze sponsor — Build Management
Telelogic’s global application life-cycle managementsoftware provides Web- and WAN-enabled capabilitiesthat combine the best practices and products used byall the stakeholders in a systems and software develop-
ment team in a common process. Telelogic’s solutions enhancecommunication, collaboration and coordination by breakingdown existing information silos and by tightly integrating allaspects of the systems and software development life cycle.
“By creating bridges between all project disciplines, Telel-ogic’s ALM solution improves the flow of information andknowledge between the different roles working across the lifecycle to improve the quality of their work,” says DominicTavassoli, vice president of product marketing for Telelogic, anIBM Company. “Because development teams have better vis-ibility into what is actually needed, unrealistic requirementsare removed and time is not wasted on unnecessary features.As a result, more value can be delivered, and the overall returnon investment is higher.”
With Telelogic DOORS, project teams limit scope creepand promote the understanding and commitment needed tofully meet the requirements. Software configuration manage-ment (SCM) provides the process backbone for developmentteams by coordinating changes, versions and configurations.With Telelogic Synergy, organizations implement a repeatablechange-control process across the enterprise for all configura-tion items, including software.
Change management is the cornerstone for sustainable
compliance, as well as causal analysis and resolution. WithTelelogic Change, teams implement a repeatable, document-ed, reliable process for capturing and processing defect dataand change requests of all types. You ensure the ability to testby describing, in DOORS, the tests associated with eachrequirement as soon as they are defined. You tackle softwarequality with comprehensive static and dynamic analysis toolsprovided in Telelogic Logiscope.
Model-driven development reduces system complexityby focusing on the high-level design and development ofapplication architecture and software. Telelogic model-driv-en solutions, Telelogic System Architect, Telelogic Rhap-sody and Telelogic Tau, let you to optimize your businessprocesses, systems and applications, improving productivity,innovation and agility.
Telelogic Focal Point manages product and product portfo-lio management to offer you the unique ability to improveproduct value and increase your agility from idea conceptionall the way through the product life cycle while maintaining aconstant focus on customer needs.
Metrics and measurement provide executives and projectleaders with timely, focused information in the form of reportsand metrics adapted and meaningful to their roles. TelelogicDashboard, a performance-measurement tool, gives softwaremanagers quick insight into project risk, status and trends byautomating the data collection, measurement and analysis.Learn more at telelogic.com. o
Telelogic Takes ALM Global
bronze sponsor — Global ALM
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Easy, document driven, web based...
Requirements Management 2.0
Collaborate 3 ways:
Web Wiki
Free Whitepaper: www.polarion.com/rm/
Maintain Traceability Report with Word® / Excel®
POLARION® Software Inc.+1 (919) 277-0955 USA | +49 711 489 9969 - 0 Europe | E-mail: [email protected]
Word (Excel too!)
polarion_SD_TIMES 08.08.2008 16:02 Uhr Seite 3
Amanager without the right information is just some-one with an opinion,” the old saying goes. Howev-er, timely and accurate data is imperative through-out the development process. If you want the right
information, you’ll want application life-cycle managementsolutions from Polarion Software.
Polarion Software offers fully integrated tools for require-ments management, version management, change manage-ment, issue tracking, project planning, project management,time management, build management, task-to-code and task-to-revision traceability, team collaboration, and communica-tion at global, project and work-item levels. Polarion toolsautomatically keep you informed about the progress and sta-tus of your projects, freeing you to actually manage resourcesand resolve problems, and relieving you of the laborious taskof feeding data to planning and other management tools thatprovide only piecemeal views. While our competitors focusonly on enterprise, our price point will allow us to focus on abroader market. We are enterprise ready, enterprise rich infeatures and benefits and enterprise proven—but designedfor teams, departments and enterprises.
Indeed, Polarion ALM is a platform for any group needingsolid requirements management with end-to end-traceability,quality assurance, ISO and CMMI compliance support.When you need to go beyond requirements management,Polarion ALM lets your team write structured requirementsusing Microsoft Office and synchronize them in real time withyour change management system. The company’s bidirection-al Traceability Matrix delivers both traceability and impactanalysis. Polarion ALM provides the industry’s only editabletraceability links and provides comprehensive forensic-leveltraceability reports exported to a wide range of tools for fur-ther analysis, such as Microsoft Excel.
“The vast majority of software requirements are devel-oped as documents using Word or Excel,” explains StefanoRizzo, vice president of product management for PolarionSoftware. “Yet a document-oriented approach is well knownto be unsuited to the engineering process for any but themost trivial projects. Until now, the requirements team hasbeen forced to use less-than-optimal tools for handlingrequirements. Polarion’s structured Live Documents tech-nology eliminates this inherent conflict.”
Polarion ALM’s built-in time management features inte-grate with your project management system to deliver timeestimating, time tracking and automated time reporting—great for managing both in-house staff and outsourcedresources, on- and off-shore. Polarion ALM all but elimi-nates the risk that you’ll bust the budget or promise some-thing you can’t deliver.
Managers need to know how requirements match imple-mentation, and Polarion ALM delivers end-to-end traceabil-
ity from requirements to source code (and vice versa). Now,you can know—not guess—whether or not the final softwarecode fulfills the stated requirements. You can understandwhich tasks are tied to which requirement and vice versa,which makes it easier to set up test suites.
Polarion ALM’s customizable workflow enables QA toquickly and easily sign off on implemented tasks. The sign-off is automatically rolled up into real-time status info andmanagement reports, so there’s no additional report writingor report generation to keep project managers informed.Furthermore, Polarion ALM provides full accountabilitymanagement features that ensures all stakeholders sign offat the appropriate time throughout the process.
Real Time team collaboration is a must. Polarion’s wikifunctionalities offer a seamless communications medium inwhich team members can collaboration on changes and doc-ument every step of the way.
When specification changes are entered by the require-ments managers, Polarion ALM automatically notifies engi-neering, QA and other stakeholders. Similarly, if engineeringchanges a requirement in the production system, therequirements team is notified. Thanks to Polarion ALM,requirements engineers and software engineers can workproductively with tools best suited to their roles.
Polarion’s Live Dashboards, plus audits and metrics, rollup real-time information across all development projectsand let executives quickly understand the true state of devel-opment across the entire enterprise. You can be confidentyour decisions are based on solid, timely data rather than onopinions or estimates that may be outdated by the time theyreach the executive level.
Live Dashboards and a Live Plan on each project let youget a handle on project status and progress in real time asteam members complete assigned tasks. Dashboards andreports reveal dependencies and over- or under-usedresources, before they become critical problems, and reportkey audits and metrics such as code reuse across projects.
“As the project gets under way, the project’s Live Plan isupdated automatically in real time as developers work onand close tasks,” Rizzo says. “There’s no more guessing aboutprogress and status. As the inevitable bottlenecks appear,you spot them right away and take corrective steps beforethings reach critical mass. What’s more, developers stayfocused and productive because they don’t need to spendtime on status reports or meetings.”
If you’re looking for a solid RM solution that offers solidinformation for today and seamless growth all the way tocomprehensive enterprise software life-cycle management,Polarion ALM could be just the ticket. For additional infor-mation and a free trial. Please visit www.polarion.com to takeadvantage of a special offer. o
Polarion ALM MeansSolid Information
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gold sponsor — Requirements Management
“
Prioritizing requirements, knowing when to escalateor route items, knowing the status of tasks, andlocating the results of manual or automated testscan be not only a nuisance, but can also hinder the
progress of your project. No matter which methodologiesyou use or the internal processes that guide them, TechEx-cel’s DevSuite ALM platform guides your developersthrough the application life cycle with ease.
“DevSuite provides clear communication throughout allphases of the development cycle,” says Joel Ferman, TechEx-cel’s Associate Director of Marketing. “Since requirements,project planning, issue tracking, test data and knowledge itemsare contained within the same system, DevSuite provides com-plete visibility throughout the life cycle. The solution helps youstandardize processes and activities, and lets you share andsearch for information and issues within the shared knowledgebase. Users see only what is relevant for their job, which elim-inates confusion and information overload”
When you have outsourced or distributed developmentteams, enhanced communication is essential.While a team on one side of the world is leavingthe office, a team getting to work in anotherlocale needs to see exactly what was completedand what next steps to take. DevSuite providesseamless handoffs in collaborative efforts—mak-ing life easier for developers and managers alike.
DevSuite includes DevSpec, a requirementsmanager that allows control of uncommittedrequirements and committed specificationsthroughout the development life cycle.DevSpec provides visibility, traceability, and val-idation to product or project requirements.
Also included in the package is DevTrack, a defect/issue-tracking tool that manages features, IT activities, bugs,development tasks and more—everything that requires aprocess. DevTrack lets you define workflow rules unique toeach development project. Once those rules are in place,users create, forward, escalate or close issues following yourdefined processes. E-mail notifications, auto-routing andauto-escalation ensure that no issue falls through the cracks.
DevPlan is the project planner inside DevSuite. It cen-tralizes resource management in one interface to increaseefficiency, allow greater visibility, and provide support fortraditional waterfall, iterative and Agile development. Man-agers allocate resources by assigning designs to areas of theproject simply by dragging the requirement from DevSpecand dropping it into DevPlan. Those requirements areimmediately populated into DevPlan, and an owner isassigned. Managers can see all of their resources, theirassignments, current projects, how long the work assignedwill take, and when the task will be completed.
Quality is central to DevSuite and is implemented throughthe DevTest module. Whether you are working in an Agileenvironment that uses continuous testing, or in iterative or tra-ditional waterfall environments, DevTest delivers real-timetest results reporting, tracking and analysis, standardization,reuse, revision control, centralized test libraries, and otherfeatures. Once initial products have been developed, the proj-ects move to DevTest, where QA teams begin their battery oftests. Users create a central repository for test cases, knowl-edge items and automation scripts, which enables them toschedule releases and test cycles, execute test assignments andsubmit defects. Out-of-box integration with leading tools, likeAutomated QA’s TestComplete and other test solutions, allowDevTest users to add test plans to the DevTest library, andschedule and launch both automated and manual tests.
“DevSuite provides the features of an enterprise applica-tion, without the weight or overhead in other enterprise solu-tions,” says Ferman. Combined with rapid deployment andmanagement features, DevSuite is ideal for companies of any
size. TechExcel has both small and large cus-tomers —10,000+ users—on its ALM solution.
DevSpec helps managers gauge potentialimpact based on desired or required changes. Itallows them to view the actual impact of thechange at the conclusion of the project. Managerscan also poll stakeholders on feature value andrisks while viewing the entire project throughoutimplementation and testing. DevSpec can alsogenerate reports with its seamless integrationwith DevPlan, DevTrack and DevTest.
DevPlan gives managers a bird’s eye view ofwhat’s going on in a project, letting them know
who’s doing what. Being able to look at projects or individu-als and immediately can be a powerful tool. In addition, Dev-Plan’s built-in reporting lets managers analyze resource useacross all projects in their portfolio, to help them plan to allo-cate and optimize resources for the future.
DevTest can increase a team’s productivity as well as theoverall quality of the software produced. Automated testingtool integration lets managers control quality in a customiz-able, process-centric manner, resulting in less issues andbugs, and higher quality end results.
TechExcel continues to add features and value to DevSuite.“Knowledge is the most important and valuable asset in devel-opment organizations,” Ferman says. “We are expanding theuse and benefits of the shared knowledge within our toolset inorder to add greater value to our customers. We’re also addingfeatures for large, distributed teams. Multi-site editions of ourproducts will let distributed teams collaborate in real time,without being hampered by distance or bandwidth restric-tions.” Learn more at www.techexcel.com. o
TechExcel Takes theConfusion out of ALM
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silver sponsor — Test/QA Tools
Joel Ferman—TechExcel, associate director of marketing
