OpenText Software Delivery Management Reviews

I mainly use ALM Octane for product teams and Agile teams.

The biggest problem with ALM Octane is that it's very complex, so it's difficult to use and scale. The graphics could also be improved, and CSD could be added.

I've been using this solution for over a year.

ALM Octane is stable, but its performance isn't so good.

The scalability isn't good.

Micro Focus' technical support is good.

Positive

The initial setup was difficult and took over three months.

We used an in-house team to implement.

ALM Octane is very expensive.

I compared Octane with Jira, which is better-priced and more user-friendly than Octane.

ALM Octane is complex and difficult to use, so you have to be willing to train the people who are going to be working with it. I would rate it five out of ten. 

We use Micro Focus ALM Octane for testing. We don't use the entire portfolio, but we use it for testing, documenting test cases, executing test cases, and tracking defects. The platform is critical to us, because we're using it for compliance purposes.

We like Micro Focus ALM Octane because its performance is okay, and its stability is okay, so we use it a lot. The platform is easy to use.

From my personal point of view, what could be improved in Micro Focus ALM Octane is its integration with Jira. The latest version of the platform could have that integration by now, but at least our version doesn't have that integration with Jira.

We're using Jira for our user storage and the whole agile part of a software development lifecycle. We don't have that Jira integration, so the testing and the definition of user storage are separate. We're moving more and more towards the agile software development lifecycle, and we chose to stick to Jira, so what I'd like to see in the next release of Micro Focus ALM Octane is Jira integration.

I've been using Micro Focus ALM Octane for years.

Micro Focus ALM Octane is a stable platform.

I'm not sure what other tools we used before using Micro Focus ALM Octane, because we've been using it for a long, long time.

The initial setup for Micro Focus ALM Octane is very straightforward.

I'm not sure which version of Micro Focus ALM Octane we're using, but I know it's not the latest version. We have 3,000 users of Micro Focus ALM Octane, and we have plans to increase usage for it.

I would recommend the platform to others who are looking into using it.

I would rate Micro Focus ALM Octane a nine. It's not perfect, but it could also be because we're not using the latest version. We use it a lot, and it really adds value.

Micro Focus ALM Octane is hosted on a separate environment, that's a hosted environment for us, it's not on-premises because Data Consultancy Services is supporting the outsourcing to that company. If you compare Micro Focus ALM Octane with Jira, we have an on-premise deployment for Jira, that's the difference.

The most useful feature of Micro Focus ALM Octane is the dashboards, they are easy to use. 

I'm using Micro Focus ALM Octane as a manager, and it is two times easier for us than other solutions. The look and feel are good and we can customize the reports and dashboard. From a management perspective, it's quite a good solution. The features are robust, ironclad, easy to configure and use. 

When it comes to CI/CD for the developers, I did not find any major differences with other solutions except that some things are saved in the files rather than being visible in the window. It is not available in the graphical user interface(GUI), but it is in Jira.

The solution is frequently updated with new features.

I have yet to experience the CI/CD part of Micro Focus ALM Octane but as demonstrated by the team who is providing the services, I see that the CI/CD could improve. When we check in the code, for the code snippet that has been checked in by a particular user, you need to open a separate file. When comparing Micro Focus ALM Octane to Jira, they have a separate window in which you can click on the ID and the code is visible in the snippet. It's a two-step process in Micro Focus ALM Octane and it's a single-step process in Jira. It's essential for the developers to think about this difference.

I have been using Micro Focus ALM Octane for approximately two years.

Micro Focus ALM Octane is stable.

I have found Micro Focus ALM Octane scalable.

We have approximately 250 projects using Micro Focus ALM Octane. We are a  small team of 10 to 20 people that varies at times. Our performance-driven teams and we have been releasing month on month. We are finding it very easy and comfortable with Micro Focus ALM Octane. 

Since the ALM Octane is outsourced for us and another MNC provides support, regarding scalability, we as customers to them have observed it's highly scalable - addition of servers to handle thousands of requests/reposne from end users - agile/scrum teams/project managers/ stakeholders to manage backlog is easily met. There is no lag in response time, never did the pages hang. I never waited for Dashboards to collect data and show up, it's just in a fraction of seconds. 

Also, latest in DevOps technology like Azure DevOps for CI/CD is easily implemented. 

The support we receive is fast. When we had Jira, we had our internal team who had been given the training to support us. With Micro Focus ALM Octane we have outsourced the support to a separate company called Data Consultancy Services, and the response time is great.

We have used Jira previously.

The senior management of my company handles the purchases of the solution. However, the price per developer was a major reason we switched from Jira. Apart from the complexity and the support, the price was a major reason that a team of 20 people unanimously decided that we would prefer to go with Micro Focus ALM Octane rather than Jira. The senior management had seen some benefit in it and they preferred it over Jira because the per developer cost was less and the support was superior.

Micro Focus ALM Octane has been exemplary, and as a project manager, since the day I've started using it, it has been wonderful. We are very comfortable with the processes and the tool. We have zero worries since we have been using the solution. It has been very positive from our side.

It is early to rate Micro Focus ALM Octane because we currently are using only the dashboard features, solution backlog, and requirement backlog. The CI/CD has yet to be implemented. Addiotanlly, the orchestration is pending, but as for the current usage for these features, the solution backlog management, prioritizing the task, creating the task, creating the defects, creating the manual test fields, and automated test fields, are very good. 

We have experienced CI/CD in orchestration in Jira, but not in Micro Focus ALM Octane and, in a month's time we will have a better understanding.

I rate Micro Focus ALM Octane a ten out of ten.

I give the high rating because of the support, look and feel, reports, and the dashboards

My primary use case is as a test management tool.

Octane has allowed us to trace data when it goes into test management, so everything is linked together and cannot be lost, and we can see the progress data is making through the system. Another benefit is that you can automate data being brought into Octane.

The most valuable feature is the product's integration with existing tools.

An area that needs improvement is the dashboard - particularly the lack of ability to compare data on a single graph. This means that you need to switch to another product instead of being able to do everything within a single tool. Performance and filtering could also be improved.

I've been using this solution for two years.

The current version of the solution is fairly stable - we're not seeing many problems.

This solution is scalable, but additional servers may be necessary depending on how many users you add.

Technical support can be slow to deal with if you need more than basic support.

Initial setup can be a bit difficult, particularly for people who are unfamiliar with all the components. For us, setup took about six months.

There is a conversion fee for changing licenses to Octane, even if the current license is from the same company.

I would rate this solution as seven out of ten.

Our use cases are test management, defect management, and release management. We also do quality management and we have started to put our Agile journey on it. That is something we started at the end of last year. We're putting more and more on it. We're doing Agile delivery and Waterfall delivery with it.

It provides us with a single platform for automated testing. We've integrated our automation testing with Jenkins to the pipeline module—parts of it, at least—and the other part is connected through the API. It makes the test you're executing very visible. It also enables you to centralize. When we report on a project basis, we're able to do it in one click for a given project. The graphs are standard for all the projects. You just click and you always have the same set of reports, tailored to that project. It fetches the data from that project. I don't need to click five times to find my report. I just click to the next project and my report is there with all the needed information in one view. 

That's what my release manager also loves about it. He doesn't have to click 10 links or 10 drop-downs to get a report. It really has it all together in one view. If we have a release we report it on a project basis, and we can also report on an overall release basis. The overall reports are also done with one click.

In addition, we use the solution’s Backlog and Team Backlog capabilities and the team is very much working together there, from the developers to the testers to the product managers. They're all working together in one space or one Backlog to deliver the functionalities or the features. This is a good thing.

Octane has also reduced manual testing time. We integrated a big part of the regression sets into the pipeline. There's room for much more. We've only scratched the surface.

And using it, we have been able to streamline a lot on the business side. We have business testing or acceptance testing, and for them it's less complicated and there is less effort needed to get their stuff done. It has reduced the cycle times which, in the end, reduces cost.

On the user side, what I like a lot is the reporting capabilities. There's no tool, to my knowledge, that gets anywhere close to Octane at the moment when it comes to the reporting capabilities. I can do everything with the reporting. There's nothing missing. I have all the options. I can create graphs, including graphs of several types and looks.

Octane provides out-of-the-box integrations to proprietary, third-party, and open source tools. The integrations are of high quality because we were easily able to integrate Jira with an additional tool. That connector tool is out-of-the-box and it's very easy to handle. We also integrated one of our in-house developed applications that has a rollout tool. The person responsible did it in one or two days with API connections. It was very easy for him. In addition, we integrated Confluence with Octane, using a self-developed script that is also based on the APIs. For people who know APIs it's very easy. 

Octane's Agile support at the team level is pretty good because it's very visible. The sorting and filtering are very advanced, which is something I miss on Jira.

There aren't major things that need improvement. It's more detailed things, minor tweaks and improvements. For example, updating items, sorting, bulk updates—these things could have a bit more flexibility, but it's still possible to do them. 

Also, for training, the proposed graphs in the dashboards could have some more explanation about what they're doing because not everyone is using the same metrics. This is more a training or knowledge thing, not a lack in the tool, and I already addressed it with my OpenText contact.

They improved some of the things I had on my list in the newest version. I haven't dug through the newest version fully yet.

We started to evaluate OpenText ALM Octane at the end of 2019. We did the kickoff in January of 2020 to plan all the migrations to it. We came from ALM QC.

It's very stable. We had one issue that was due to a faulty, outdated script that overloaded the system somehow. Apart from that, Octane is as stable as it gets. We haven't had any downtime apart from that outdated script.

The technical support is very good. Depending on the severity of your ticket, the feedback is almost immediate. And we can collaborate with them, show screens and share logs, and they come back with a solution. It has been a positive experience.

Our previous solution, ALM QC, was outdated. Our company started our Agile journey and we needed to be able to support that journey and the Waterfall journey as well. Octane offered this hybrid model which was the clear selling point for it.

The native support for Waterfall and Agile software development was very important in our decision to go with the solution because we knew that Waterfall and Agile will co-exist for quite some time, and the tool had to be able to manage both in parallel. Also, for the future, it will still support what we want. If the shift goes more to Agile and less to Waterfall, the tool still has to support both of the methodologies.

Because we came from ALM QC, and that tool was in use for quite some time, there were a lot of user-defined things and customization. Initially what we had to do was a cleanup on the QC side: what we wanted to take over and what we didn't want to take over. We really cleaned out stuff that wasn't needed anymore. That took one or two months. 

The actual installation of Octane was very quick and straightforward. The customization and configuration of Octane took about two months. That was because we were very new to the application. If I set up a workspace now, it's much faster.

We have 1,100 users and their roles are really across the company. We have project managers, developers, testers, release managers, and test managers. We also have business users and product managers on the Agile side. Any role you could think of is using it, apart from the C-level.

What I like a lot about Octane is that it's very easy to handle from an admin point of view. The maintenance is very low compared with ALM QC where it took several hours or days, even, to set it up and upgrade it. Those processes are very easy with Octane.

I compare it, still, with ALM QC, and there's definitely a return on investment on it. I see this leveraging more in the future.

The comparison is always with Jira, so the pricing of Octane is a bit on the higher side. But if you look at what you have to add to Jira, on the plug-in side, to have the same abilities you have with Octane, you're more or less even, or even ahead with Octane.

We only looked at Jira. We had some concerns about its reporting capabilities and its task management capabilities, as well as managing Waterfall and Agile in parallel.

You definitely need to prepare well, if you're going to implement it. Do a proper analysis of where you're coming from and what is still needed and what is not needed, and really kick out stuff that isn't needed anymore. It will make the whole migration to Octane easier when you have less historical data in it.

I see that our users like to add things and try new things because it's built in an open manner. When you add Python scripts and use the API connection, you have a lot of flexibility for doing certain things. I see some developers who like it and who like to experiment with how to work better on their side.

We have started a PoC on integrating the solution with our CI server for continuous integration and delivery. The CI/CD is working and we're fine-tuning it now. I hope it will give us a one-click approach where we can even execute the pipeline from the GUI, which will make it easy to use. My vision is that we have all the pipelines integrated in Octane and that we can trigger them from there to speed things up and have them visible for developers and for testers. This would also be a way they could collaborate more. We're not there yet. 

It has the potential to reduce integration costs by building a streamlined application delivery pipeline that is connected to all IDE, CI, and SCCM tools.

Octane can also provide a single, global ALM platform that supports all our Agile and Waterfall needs. We don't have all our Agile in yet, but it can. That's the vision: that we have them all in one tool. We're not there yet, but I see glimpses of hope. It has the potential to improve the quality and the speed. The potential is there.

It still has upside coming. Things are being developed. We are in the preferred partner program, so we see also the new features that are coming, which will facilitate daily work.

Its user experience made us a lot happier than using other tools, making it easier for non-IT teams to work together with IT teams.

Octane provides us with a single platform for all automated testing. Our test management is a lot more transparent and successful because it includes the team (the non-IT user and the developers). We are more streamlined and running a lot faster. The single platform for all automated testing has 100 percent affected collaboration between development and testing teams because everything is all in one place.

Octane integrates with your CI server for continuous integration and delivery. This makes us go faster, providing overall transparency during stages or phases.

The solution provides a single, global ALM platform that supports all our agile and waterfall needs. This has improved the overall quality of our DevOps by a lot.

The user experience is a lot better than any tool that I have used before. Overall, it is great. It has a smooth interface, which is very user-friendly. It makes it easier to work together and have more transparency and customization, which is very good. There are a lot of features where you can add fields, input individual fields, and input rules, like templated rule-based interaction between entities. 

The Backlog management is really interesting, because it is all in one place. You don't have a feature here and a feature there, instead you have the Backlog and testing using different backup items, like user storage features and tasks, all in one place. In addition, we are able to write documents, which we can transfer to backup items. Then, we can test them in the same solution without switching tools, or even switching from one part of the tool to another part, because it is all in one place.

We use the solution’s Backlog and Team Backlog capabilities. They make our DevOps processes easier through transparency and asset collaboration.

It could use just some small improvements. I would like additional features, like planning features, user story mapping, or connection to collaboration tools. 

We have been using it for two years in a client company. We have also used it for several of our teams as well as IT related product development.

We have used it now for two years, but only in the last six to 12 months have we really been going all in.

The stability is perfect. We haven't had any issues.

We are not using the most recent version. There are two more updates, and we are already thinking about updating to the newest version.

The scalability is excellent. I don't think there is a limit.

We use it quite extensively. We have about 30 teams working on it with approximately 10 projects, and we are definitely expanding.

The technical support is really good. I would rate their support as a nine out of 10, as there is always room for improvement.

We do use the community that is offered. This is a very good point for identifying issues in terms of how we can use additional features.

We switched from Jira. The main reasons that we switched to Octane:

1. Provides a single tool.
2. A lot smoother user experience.

The initial setup was absolutely perfect and very easy. It was fast getting into the work. We were up and running in a very short amount of time. We switched from one tool to another in days, which is very good. 

We did it ourselves. Just a couple of people were involved in the deployment.

Octane has reduced manual testing time in our organization.

The solution has reduced our testing costs.

It has reduced integration costs by building a streamlined application delivery pipeline connecting to all IDE, CI, and SCCM tools.

The solution has helped us to produce releases faster. 

We did not really evaluate other options. We were introduced to Octane and found it to be a good idea.

OpenText ALM Octane natively supports waterfall, hybrid, and agile software development at an enterprise scale. There is no difference based on whatever path that you are trying to follow. You have work, and if you do it in cycles and iterations, that's fine. If you don't, that is fine too.

The solution provides out-of-the-box integrations to proprietary, third-party, and open source tools. However, we are not using DevOps integration right now.

I would rate this solution as a nine out of 10. 

We are only using the Quality testing module of Octane to test newly developed mobile solutions or changes. For example, if someone wants to deploy a new promotion of a cheap bundle for 1 GB of 50 ram. Once that goes through the project management and comes to us, we use mostly these three Octane modules: Backlog, Quality, and Pipelines. 

My team has benefited a lot from this solution. Sometimes it can be a massive, gigantic project where it's a migration from one system to another. Because we already have the requirements and the test kit setup on the system, it is easy for us to run regression.

The solution natively supports Agile-Waterfall hybrid software development at an enterprise scale. This is very important to us. Because even though the company wishes to go Agile, we still have projects which follow a Waterfall methodology. In order for us to accommodate both, we needed some sort of hybrid system. Because if we are using a fully Agile system, then the reporting might not be correctly extracted.

At the end of the day, teams are able to collaborate because we are working on one thing. One person can do their part of the job, then another person picks from there and carries on. So, it runs as a smooth process.

Even though there are other people who are not using the system, if we would give them access to the project management, then they would be able to trace where we are at any point in time.

I like that most tests are usable. I can parameterize, then use that test and pass a new value.

Its ability to handle a large number of projects is very good. I can just cross-reference and reuse what was existing before, instead of moving from one browser or application to another.

Octane's ability to connect all related entities to reflect project status and progress is great because even our team who runs external tests from Jenkins that the reporting is centralized. Because it was run from within Octane, the results come back into Octane. However, since I am not using those external systems, I only get results whether the test passed or failed.

The solution provides us with a single platform for all automated testing. It combines everything so someone doesn't have to look into many systems to be able to check this or that. They only have to log into one system to check for a particular requirement.

Backlog is like a library of our tests. It contains the features linked to the tests, so you can see which project or feature that you are working on. It is all in one place and everyone who needs it has access to it.

The reporting needs to be improved and allow for customization. I want to build my own widgets, but I don't want to use the ones already in the system. I want to build mine from scratch.

From the database point of view along with how we see the reporting, they use old data. Also, there are sometimes limitations due to their license restrictions. If we want to share our tests with other teams, extracting different tests out of the system, those tests come out as a script where the content will be something like a binary format type of text.

We started using Octane from February 2020. 

I do not know whether it is because we used an existing server, but sometimes the solution would be slow. Nowadays, it's much better because not as many people are logging into the system. However, I find it slow. When you capture a requirement or test (and it throws out an error), then when you refresh and find that it has created a duplicate. For some people who don't understand it, Octane can create a lot of useless information on the system.

My team does just minor maintenance of the solution.

The extensiveness of integrations into the DevOps ecosystem in the 15.1.20 version to support scalability has been very applicable to our business. We have integrated the solution with Jenkins, which was user-friendly. We also integrated Octane with Qlik Sense and QlikView for people for whom we do not want to give access to the system but want to have them viewing our reports. Therefore, I think the scalability is very wide. 

On my team, there are 18 users who are testers. Overall, there are 20 licenses.

We have used the technical support, and they are very good. 

There was a time that the server firewall was enabled, so we could not access the system from our side. Since we were working from home and connecting remotely, no one was able to establish regular shipping. Eventually, the IT person and our team went through everything. They checked the server settings and pinpointed the problem. 

We did an upgrade of our ALM from Quality Center.

Our team is saving time on testing by using Octane. Something that would take five days to do, now it takes one day.

The solution has helped us to produce releases 40 percent faster. 

Going forward, I think we will want to explore adding more licenses.

We have used more of a requirement-driven tool, where it will help you to identify which requirement already exists. Then, you don't capture duplicates and it directs you to the project that is linked to that particular requirement. 

We also use Jira at a high level for projects.

We don't use the security features of this solution yet, but it is something that my boss wants us to tap into.

Systems and technologies are evolving as well as methodologies.

I would rate this solution as a nine out of 10.

Implementation of SDLC in large companies based on Agile methodology, with accent on test automation. 

Migration from VModel projects to Agile

We implement most of our test automation projects based on Octane. Very compatible to what customers need and I can deploy very fast. The projects start working from day one even with default configurations. 

We can deliver to customers a holistic view over all projects... an integrated view. In a company most projects are interdependent, the status view delivered live on all of them is very important. This is a big asset for us.

The most valuable feature of ALM Octane is an easy implementation of Agile projects. It perfectly respects the theory of Agile. If you fill in the predefined fields you will get a good implementation of your Agile project.

If I go in details a little we can offer insights to easy identify bottlenecks in the projects, overloads of teams, stagnating tasks, TRENDS ANALYSIS and based on this info we can improve the SDLC 

Areas for improvement would be installation and configuration. In the next release, I would like them to include simpler to read documentation or an installation engine like UFT or LoadRunner provide. I would also like to see integration with all continuous integration tools on the market, now it has many of them onboarded but this market grows fast and many other new CI/CD products appear.

Since it appeared

very scalable for Scaled Agile For Enterprises

I've only used technical support for very serious/difficult problems,  slower responses are normal in these situations. 

Positive

I used many solutions in the past... I will keep using Octane

You need technical knowledge in order to install this product, the documentation is complex but it could be made easier to read

iQST is the vendor team... very good expertise

The investment in this product may not be cheap, but you can get high value out of it. Please consider consultancy to have a complete and detailed configuration tailored to your needs for best ROI

ALM is very compatible and has all the necessary integration. Octane is an improvement on previous versions because it comes as preconfigured as possible, which simplifies the whole process of integration in a company's ecosystem. When implementing this product, make sure to call in a specialist team who can make sure everything is configured properly. I would give this product a score of ten out of ten.