OpenText Application Quality Management Reviews

I use the solution in my company for test management. The tool is basically used for the testing process.

The tool has some limitations for the dashboard, especially when it comes to 20 or 25 of them, which is sometimes not enough, and one may have to use a custom Excel to help extend the dashboard.

The tool needs improvements since it is an old technology. OpenText ALM / Quality Center's improved version is ALM Octane but it does not support some of the traditional parts of the original product. Some of the traditional parts are missing in a lot of areas of OpenText ALM / Quality Center. It is difficult to directly transfer OpenText ALM / Quality Center to ALM Octane. Some of the classic OEMs have limitations, especially when used in an IDE network.

There is a need for the tool to check where changes in UI or UX need to be made. The technology used for UI and UX are not user-friendly.

I have been using OpenText ALM / Quality Center for more than ten years.

I rate the technical support a five out of ten.

Neutral

I have experience with IBM EAM.

The product's initial setup phase is easy.

During the product's installation phase, I will not count on the configuration part because it is based on the user requirements. Helping with the setup of the tool for a group of people in an organization can take around two or three days, including the setup and installation.

It is an expensive tool. I think one needs to pay 10,000 USD towards the perpetual licensing model.

Speaking if the tool has improved our company's life cycle management, I would say that even OpenText wants to change to an application lifecycle. The tool can be helpful for delivery and for sale.

In terms of the quality assurance features in the tool, users can see what their requirements are, and it mostly starts off with the testing phase and for high-end developments as well, and it has a requirements model. The tool is a requirements management application. The tool can be used to produce very complex health care tools.

The tool can support and execute scripts based on commands. People can do everything that is simple to be able to meet their requirements with the help of OpenText ALM / Quality Center. At the end stage, the tool can be used to judge the quality of a project.

The reporting module is included with Excel, Word, and some Microsoft reporting tools.

It is possible to integrate the tool with Excel and some other solutions.

Feature-wise, OpenText ALM / Quality Center is the best.

OpenText ALM / Quality Center is a specific tool that was not from OpenText in the beginning, and I feel it was from Mercury, but it has proven to be a professional tool in terms of visibility, quality, and other such areas. I know that TCM is associated with Sentinel.

Right now, I wouldn't recommend the tool because of its price. The tool can be recommended to those who are willing to pay the money for it.

I rate the tool a seven out of ten.

I use the solution in my company for test management. In our company, we were creating and mapping our requirements with the scenarios. The tool is used to map defects with test cases for the traceability part. My company has made use of the complete application.

The tool's most valuable feature is that it is user-friendly, and everybody can learn to use it easily.

Recently, I faced some issues while using the product on Mac-based machines, as I was unable to upload test cases. The aforementioned feature is not available with the tool. I asked the management to provide a Windows-based machine to upload different tests.

I have been using OpenText ALM / Quality Center for three to four years. I am a user of the tool.

It is a stable solution.

Our company's customers had multiple teams, of which some operated from remote sites or the offshore side. In general, there are around 30 people using the product.

I have not contacted the tool's support team. My company's support team members had contacted the tool's technical team to help deal with the product's issue with Mac-based machines.

I haven't done anything regarding the installation since our company's clients manage it.

My company has only installed the product on our client's local machine, which was easy since the support team members assisted us. Everything was clearly mentioned on the tool's website.

The solution is deployed on the client servers.

I feel that the product is a good test management tool. I feel that everyone needs to use the application.

The deficit management capability has impacted the productive quality, and I feel it is a good feature. My company has used the tool to map the test cases. My company can find out which test cases are impacted by defects.

The reporting and the analytics functionality that the solution provides to users to help them make informed decisions is one of the good parts of the product, especially since it helps create reports and dashboards easily.

OpenText ALM / Quality Center is an easy application to use. Anybody who has experience with IT processes and the development side can easily use the product.

I rate the tool an eight out of ten.

We use the solution mainly for test cases, SAP projects, and login defects.

The solution's most valuable features are its bidirectional traceability, the solid structure within the test plan, and the test lab.

The solution's reporting could be improved. I noticed that the solution does not have a good approach to exploratory testing. Exploratory testing, which has a good screen capture and allows people to pursue their testing before designing the test cases, seems to be more in demand. The solution has evolved over the years but needs to catch up with some of the user community's expectations.

I have been using OpenText ALM / Quality Center for 16 years.

I rate the solution’s stability nine and a half out of ten.

I rate the solution an eight or nine out of ten for scalability.

I've used almost all the testing products, including Jira and IBM.

The solution’s initial setup is straightforward.

We have seen a return on investment with the solution. The tool has saved at least 30% to 40% of our time. The solution we used before OpenText ALM was very time-consuming, and it wasn't well structured. The traceability of OpenText ALM is very solid, and we have seen some significant gains in terms of our traceability.

The solution's pricing makes it more challenging for companies to buy it. Only major companies that can afford it use OpenText ALM. Jira is free for the first ten users, which makes it more attractive for smaller businesses.

As a professional tester, the solution's best features are traceability, test coverage, identifying requirements, and mapping the appropriate test cases against the requirements to ensure coverage. The solution provides bidirectional traceability for requirements to test the defects. It is a solid way of tracking and managing the overall testing activities there.

The solution is deployed on the cloud in our organization. I would advise users to take the time to understand the tool and work it through. It may seem a little complex at first, but the complexity is a result of the tool's capabilities and sophistication. Once you understand the tool quite well, it meets most, if not all, of your requirements.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We used Quality Center for test case management. We wrote and uploaded test cases into it, and we also executed them manually. We could track the results of the test cases, and we could also track the defects that were found.

We also used it for higher-end requirements management and traceability. The managers and other stakeholders could track the requirements and see how they were being tested.

The most valuable feature is the ST Add-In. It's a Microsoft add-in that makes it much easier to upload test cases into Quality Center.

Moreover, the solution has additional features, like integration with multiple tools. For example, they have integrated with IBM Rational Integration Tester, which is a tool for API testing and web service testing. They have also integrated with Selenium.

There is room for improvement in the scalability and stability of the solution. 

I have experience using this solution. 

I would rate stability an eight out of ten. The solution does crash at times. 

oI would rate the scalability a six out of ten. There is room for improvement here. 

The initial setup is quite easy. 

The deployment doesn't take much time. It is very fast.

Overall, I would rate the solution a seven out of ten. It is a pretty good tool. 

It's not a simple tool, but it does have a lot of features and considerations. It really depends on the level of the user. For example, some users will be working on the test execution, while senior levels will be tracking the requirement analysis. I work with both levels to track progress. So, it's a tool that can be used by people at all levels of experience.

We used Micro Focus ALM for the bifurcation process. We have different health associations registering on our portal. We import their data into our channels or segments created by us. So, whenever the users import the data, we require a medium to bifurcate it into different divisions. The solution helps us segment the data.

The most valuable feature is its customer service. They were very helpful. The initial phase of setting up Micro Focus ALM was challenging for us. It took us two or three weeks to set up. During this period, the support team devoted enough time to help us. They scheduled multiple meetings with us. Along with this, it was a straightforward program with all the functions we required from their end.

They should specify every protocol or process with labels or names. Whenever we tried to contact the support team, explaining the problems in our internal sections took a lot of work. While communicating the issues regarding channeling, we had to use very general terms. They needed to be more specific to identify which protocols were working fine and which were not. If they label the protocols better, communication will become much more manageable.

We were using the solution till last June or July. We used it for seven and a half months.

It was a stable solution, and it never crashed. I rate the solution's stability as a nine.

We had a team of 42 people using the solution. The solution is entirely scalable for small enterprises in the C2/C3 stage. I rate the solution's scalability of small enterprises as eight and a half. It might not be a helpful solution for large enterprises considering its cost.

We had to involve their support team whenever we had problems bifurcating data. The team was always there to help.

Positive

Micro Focus ALM is better than IBM or other solutions I have worked with.

The initial setup was easy since the support team was with us. They were always there to support us. Initially, the accuracy rate was meager when we deployed it ourselves. It was doing the wrong bifurcation at times. Thus, improving the accuracy rate took us two to three weeks.

The installation is more of a process than exclusively parting it into stages. In the first stage, we had to configure the setup according to our needs. In the second stage, we had to import our data into it, and the third one was to bifurcate it and make a training model. We used our model before sending and receiving the data directly for confidentiality.

I rate the solution's initial setup as a nine.

We implemented the solution by ourselves. We indigenously built a model for integration. We were a team of seven and an executive, meaning eight members were involved. The team included software developers and product managers.

The ROI is worth it.

It was expensive for us. For the first two weeks, we had to employ people now and then as the system needed to be more accurate. It cost us a lot of money. I rate the solution's pricing as a seven or an eight out of ten.

Our team was able to do a part of the maintenance, and we required the support cell's help with some of the features. The support team is excellent and helpful. 

I recommend Micro Focus ALM if you're looking for a solution that can help you for a small duration in the C2 or C3 stage when you want to grow. But it is wise to avoid hanging around with it for long. The solution is a bit costly, but simultaneously, it is cost-friendly for the organization for a reasonable accuracy rate, preferably above 99%.

I rate the Micro Focus ALM as an eight out of ten.

We are using Micro Focus ALM Quality Center to test the software from the company. Additionally, we do manual and automated tests.

The most valuable feature of Micro Focus ALM Quality Center is its support for many automation technologies.

Micro Focus ALM Quality Center could improve its marketing. For example, Tricentis is much better at letting the market know about new solutions and updates. The migration of the tool could improve, but it can be difficult.

In a future release, the AI which is implemented in the new version could be marketed better with more details of its capabilities.

I have been using Micro Focus ALM Quality Center for approximately 15 years.

The stability of Micro Focus ALM Quality Center is good.

We have a few hundred people using the solution from project to project.

Micro Focus ALM Quality Center is a scalable solution.

I have contacted the support a few times over the years of using the solution. The support could improve by having more training. I had a difficult time working with their team. The problem the support had was they were not familiar with the things I implemented and the connectors used.

We were using Tricentis and Micro Focus ALM Quality Center to compare which one was better. However, we deployed Micro Focus ALM Quality Center a lot more and at this point, it would be difficult to migrate to a new solution. This is one of the main reasons why we use this solution. However, as a company, we wanted to use the best solution and at this time there is still a debate.

The initial setup of Micro Focus ALM Quality Center depends if you have prior knowledge or how much technical experience the installer has. It is simple if you have some experience. The process is not meant for a non-technical person, such as setting up the infrastructure to build the servers.

The solution is priced high but it is worth the money. We received a return on investment.

The solution is priced high.

Micro Focus ALM Quality Center is one of the best tools on the market.

I strongly recommend using Micro Focus ALM Quality Center to capitalize on the work that is done within the tool for future activities, such as regression testing and training. Unlike working with Excel or Word documents, the work you do in this tool remains accessible and secure, with the option for backups. It's no surprise that many business professionals are using this tool, as it provides a reliable and efficient platform to work on. With a small amount of training and induction in key areas like the test lab and defects module, anyone can work effectively within this tool.

I rate Micro Focus ALM Quality Center a nine out of ten.

We primarily use Micro Focus ALM Quality Center for test management, including test case creation and execution, and we also use it for planning different test cycles during regression tests. We handpick the cases, plan different test cycles, and use Micro Focus ALM Quality Center for defect creation.

What I found most valuable in Micro Focus ALM Quality Center is the ease of use, especially compared to Micro Focus ALM Octane, that's more difficult because it doesn't have clear-cut options.

For example, in Micro Focus ALM Quality Center, creating test cases is easier because the solution allows writing in Excel. There was a template provided, so you can write on the template and upload it, which means you can quickly write and upload many cases at once, so that's the main advantage of Micro Focus ALM Quality Center.

Planning regression cycles on the tool was also easier because you could mark regression cases and handpick your planned cases for execution rather than pulling every case, which was more difficult.

An area for improvement in Micro Focus ALM Quality Center is not being able to update the Excel sheet where I wrote the test cases. I don't experience issues when writing and uploading new cases on the sheet. Still, whenever I update some test cases, I'm unsuccessful because there is overlapping data or some cases are missing from the sheet. Micro Focus needs to improve on that aspect.

What I'd like to see in the next Micro Focus ALM Quality Center release is more report formats, for example, a graphical reporting format. Right now, you'll find just one or two formats available in the tool for reporting.

Report preparation and generation should also be easier because I have to put in each parameter, and if I miss one parameter, the report will look weird. Pulling in parameters should be simplified and quicker, and it should be easier to generate reports on Micro Focus ALM Quality Center. Reporting in the tool should be more user-friendly. At least for day-to-day or regular weekly reporting.

At the end of the project, if you want a more sophisticated report, the tool should have a reporting option that looks more high-level and similar to what data warehouse and BI solutions provide. You can integrate Micro Focus ALM Quality Center with BI or data warehouse tools to get that kind of reporting, but it would be great if you could do it on the tool itself without needing to integrate it with other tools.

I want Micro Focus ALM Quality Center to have a report that shows data analytics, how many test cases I executed for a specific period, the percentage of tests that passed or failed, etc. There should be data available for extraction from year to year, from an overall project perspective, rather than just day-to-day or week-to-week.

I started using Micro Focus ALM Quality Center in 2017, so I've used it for five years. I'm still using the solution.

Micro Focus ALM Quality Center is pretty stable, so it's an eight out of ten for me. I've been using it for the last five years, and it's stable.

Micro Focus ALM Quality Center is a scalable product. It's a seven out of ten for me.

Most of the time, the technical support for Micro Focus ALM Quality Center was excellent. I only recalled a few times when it wasn't so great. I'd rate support as seven out of ten.

Neutral

Setting up Micro Focus ALM Quality Center was easy, so I'd rate it as eight.

In my project, I'm using Micro Focus ALM Quality Center version 12.5, but I'm checking if I can use Micro Focus ALM Octane because I have a trial version.

My rating for Micro Focus ALM Quality Center is eight out of ten.

We were using Micro Focus ALM Quality Center for our test management for lots of products. I installed ALM myself, and we were using it for SAP deployment. We were using Requirement modules, Test Plan modules, Test Lab modules as well as the Defect modules in ALM. Not only for this product, but also for other companies like Cooper, Active, Delphi, Allegis and DLM for test management.

Micro Focus ALM Quality Center is a very good test management tool especially for writing test cases and uploading. You can even upload the test cycles from Excel. You get the defects and the reports, and also some automation using EFT which works with ALM. All these features are good.

In terms of places for improvement, Micro Focus is an expensive tool. We see nowadays that there are other products coming, and Micro Focus is more expensive and there are lots of license costs. Lots of companies are not taking it because of the cost.

It would be a good idea if they could deal with some user features and take a look at the cost. Because there is a lot of maintenance. People buy licenses and then every year they need to pay around 18% support charge, et cetera. It depends on the companies. Some rich companies buy it. Mid-level and smaller companies may have difficulties with this one.

Micro Focus ALM Quality Center is a very recent name. It really started back in 2000, almost 20 years before. This product belonged to Mercury Interactive. After that HP bought it. From HP, Micro Focus bought it. I have been working on this product for the last 20 years. Initially they called it TestDirector. After that it become Quality Center. Now it's ALM.

As far as performance is concerned, it is a very, very, very robust tool. It works. The only thing is the number of licenses. Because you buy licenses of 50, only 50 can concurrently use it. There could be 400 named users. 

It requires low maintenance, and the user creation is simple. If you want to quickly add any users, or if you want to quickly create a project, it is straightforward and easy.

Micro Focus ALM Quality Center is scalable in terms the database size and the repository. It has storage in two places; service level and at Windows level, the File System level. Lots of documents get stored in the Windows level, the File System level. So as long as you have good enough space, 100 GB or 150 GB is good enough. Only two limitation. One is licenses. The second is the server. So we usually recommend around 100 GB, 50 GB to 100 GB, which is enough.

We usually have 200 users using it. Usually, people buy a 50-user license but that could be used by 300 people, 300 users, because not everybody will be logging on at the same time. So scalability depends upon the license.

In terms of maintaining and deploying the updates, it does not take more than one person, probably not even that. I would say 1/4 person for this role. That person is a system admin. I used to do that, too. I was doing upgrades and configuring all myself. At the same time I was managing the actual deployment of the test phase.

This takes about one day a month.

Tech support handled most of the issues handled well, but not where there is a problem. Whenever we buy a product from Micro Focus we usually buy from Micro Focus directly. Or there are second sellers and we can buy from them, and they give you support. Whenever we have a problem, Micro Focus is very good at support. We log a ticket and they support it.

Initial setup is very easy. Usually there are two ways of doing it. We needed two servers; an app server and a database server. Usually Micro Focus, like other companies, installs it on their cloud or you can install it yourselves. It's not very difficult. I was doing that too.

When we have the ALM we can install it very quickly. It does not take much time, maybe three or four days. Once the system is ready we can pretty much install ALM and apply the license, which then deploys to users. Configuring is very easy. I was creating users and different groups, putting in lots of configuration.

Usually, whenever I work with the clients, I recommend ALM for the separate deployments and separate implementations because it's easy to use and good with those things. However, because of the cost there are some clients that cannot afford the high price, or can afford it but they don't want to pay that much.

As SAP Solution Managers, we try to use it. But people also use Jira. Jira has a very high level test management tool. So people who can't afford the price go with Jira.

Micro Focus ALM Quality Center is a good solution. On a scale of one to ten, I would give it a nine.