BEVERLY, Mass., Oct 04, 2011 -- SmartBear Software today announced the latest release of its SaaS-based and on-premise application lifecycle management tool, ALMComplete(TM) 2011, and QA and test management tool, QAComplete(TM) 2011. With this major release, SmartBear is providing software development and QA teams with more granular control over agile test management and release management activities, while enhancing test reuse.
Features made available by the 2011 release include a new test management module that gives development and QA teams advanced test coverage visibility and central control over manual and automated testing assets, promoting consistency and test reuse. Additionally, a new release management module provides teams with more agility to manage and collaborate on software artifacts across releases, assess release readiness, and make informed release decisions.
Darren Gardner, Software Development Manager at C4i, a world leader in interoperable communications solutions, said, "The latest release of ALMComplete will significantly improve efficiency and visibility of our software development and delivery process. The team SCRUM board is a valuable tool during SCRUM and status meetings. It provides the entire team with a better picture of what is happening and what needs to be done to close off a release and the project. Test management has considerably improved to provide a value alternative to the test management features of some of the larger players, such as HP Quality Center. The new release management feature pulls together the ALM solution, by providing a consistent approach to managing release artifacts such as requirements, plans and tasking, and defect and test management, all without the hassles of disparate tools and numerous scripts to synchronize data."
SmartBear ALMComplete and QAComplete are aimed at the development team looking to solve an immediate need with minimal overhead. This release is full of new features to improve efficiency and reduce manual steps in the software delivery process across multiple platforms.
Jim Duggan, Research VP, Gartner Inc., said, "Buyers of ALM tools are driven by specific development challenges, not a general enterprise focus on integration or automation. Buyers seek solutions that modify development work streams as unobtrusively as possible, integrating some or all the point tools in use, and paying back with the benefits of traceability and workflow automation. One example of a tactical problem is consistent change control across differing platforms to capture information for subsequent reporting."
ALMComplete and QAComplete include new features and enhancements in the following areas:
Test Management -- A new "Test Management" module enables teams to approach testing more strategically and easily visualize differences in planned versus actual test coverage, improving efficiency. Advancements include high-level and detailed views, the ability to centrally manage manual and automated testing assets, and the capability to drill down into supporting detail from a single interface.
-- New Test Library -- Provides a central repository for all manual and automated tests and promotes consistency across test sets during test reuse. Users can also change test steps during test runs when required and synchronize changes back to the test library.
-- Dynamic test step-level management -- View test steps and expected results simultaneously for a greater level of regulatory audit-ability; attach files and assign pass/fail at test step-level; and create critical steps that act as show stoppers when tests fail.
-- Enhanced test control -- Apply "cloning" to create multiple test sets with different operating systems and browser configurations quickly; specify "stop on failure" to cease testing at any point; and specify the order that test sets are run to align with the existing QA process.
Release Management -- A new "Releases" module enables teams to define discrete sprints, iterations and builds (including start and end dates) and link requirements, tasks, test sets and defects to specific releases. This improves reuse, as well as burn down and velocity analysis.
-- Users gain actionable insight and granular control over requirements, tasks, test sets, tests and defects to help assess risk more accurately and prioritize activities within and across releases.
-- Drill into Agile sprints, patches and other artifacts, view test sets, individual tests, and test run histories.
-- Detailed analytics are automatically included in release reporting to help users make more informed release decisions and compare analytics from release to release, sprint to sprint.
Team Task Board -- The team Task Board enables agile development teams to add and organize all of their own "to-do," "in-progress" and "completed" stories or tasks. Tasks are now viewable across the entire team, helping to identify critical or delayed items. The easy-to-use "drag & drop" interface lets teams reprioritize stories like sticky notes on a white board to stay on track, whether in a local or virtual environment.
Reporting and Dashboards -- Advanced reporting and analytics focus on traceability and test step-level detail.
-- Render critical issues visually in multiple formats to assess progress, improve comprehension, and meet executive reporting requirements.
-- New dashboards for release reporting, requirements traceability, run analysis and more.
Steve Miller, Vice President of ALM Solutions at SmartBear said, "The ALMComplete and QAComplete 2011 releases provide more actionable information to Agile development, QA, and project management teams, so they can quickly drill into release and test case details without having to navigate a myriad of screens. We've focused on visibility, efficiency, and usability for the end user, so they can easily integrate ALMComplete or QAComplete into their daily software delivery process. ALMComplete 2011 provides enterprise-level features at a fraction of the cost of our competitors, and offers an add-on conversion tool to easily migrate from HP Quality Center."
For a full list of features and a video overview, visit: http://smartbear.com/almcomplete/whats-new/ .
HP Quality Center Conversion Tool
Existing HP Quality Center clients can easily migrate their data to ALMComplete or QAComplete. Deep conversion features include the ability to automatically set up user accounts, folder structures, custom fields, and choice lists with minimal setup time, while providing advanced field mapping capabilities as needed.
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