PeerSpot user
QA at a healthcare company with 10,001+ employees
Vendor
Valuable for Defect Management, Test Management, MS Excel Reporting, Analysis Graphs.

What is most valuable?

Defect Management, Test Management, MS Excel Reporting, Analysis Graphs.

How has it helped my organization?

Allowed us to centralize our test efforts from end to end so that we have a single source of truth for all of our test artifacts and data.

What needs improvement?

As an administrator, the ability to add users to their appropriate user groups from inside of the Site Administrator tool instead of having to log into the ALM project itself to make that user group assignment would be HUGE!

For how long have I used the solution?

Since 1999 when the product was known as Test Director.

Buyer's Guide
OpenText ALM / Quality Center
May 2024
Learn what your peers think about OpenText ALM / Quality Center. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2024.
771,157 professionals have used our research since 2012.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Just when folks forgot to check in their assets before migrating / upgrading existing projects.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Not so far, no.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Not so far, no.

How are customer service and support?

Customer Service:

Good.

Technical Support:

Good.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Have been using a version of this solution since 1999. Have not used competing products day to day as of yet.

How was the initial setup?

No.

What about the implementation team?

In house.

What was our ROI?

I don't have exact figures, but we are saving time and money using this solution.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user364170 - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
It gives us a uniform way of working and reporting on defects as a project progresses.

Valuable Features

It's our main hub for everything around testing, especially when it comes to defect and department management.

Improvements to My Organization

It gives us a uniform way of working and reporting on defects as a project progresses. We've been using it for so long, it's become a standard part of our working protocols.

Room for Improvement

ALM bridges our development gap, but it's not quite full-scale yet. We'd like to see more functionalities so that we can use it to seamlessly helps us bring applications from development into production.

Deployment Issues

We never have issues with deployment.

Stability Issues

I'd say it's stable 100% of the time. We never have outages.

Scalability Issues

I don't know if we're really a large scale user. We have around 230 users, and scalability has never been an issue. I think it's because we've been using it for so long that when we have an issue, we can solve it ourselves.

Customer Service and Technical Support

It depends on the case, but most of the time first-line support is okay, but in most cases we have to go to second-line support.

Other Advice

We work with many partners and contractors, and they always come in and say "we would like to use another tool." I always challenge them and say, "If you can give me clear advantages on paper of going with another tool, then I'll go." So far, no one's been able to convince me.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
OpenText ALM / Quality Center
May 2024
Learn what your peers think about OpenText ALM / Quality Center. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: May 2024.
771,157 professionals have used our research since 2012.
PeerSpot user
QA Lead at a logistics company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
Though we can create QC project files to create a backup, there is size limitation when you restore the backup.

What is most valuable?

A comprehensive solution aiming for total Test management. It has bindings with HP QTP which is a test automation tool. With the addition of BPT (Business Process Testing), QC along with QTP has been the choice for test automation in most of the IT businesses.

How has it helped my organization?

Maintenance of test artifacts becomes messy when there are many scripts and supporting test artifacts. HP QC makes it easier to maintain the scripts and also organize them into various business areas.

What needs improvement?

Backup strategy is lacking in QC. Once the QC server crashes, all your automation artifacts are unrecoverable. Though we can create QC project files to create a backup, there is size limitation when you restore the backup.

For how long have I used the solution?

4 years and 6 months

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Configuration of QC contains a number of steps which could be made simpler. Many of these settings can be default with an option for the user to change them.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Getting to the root cause of any issue with QC is difficult. In many cases, restoring the QC projects is the way to resolve issues. Though HP support is available, it is not immediate.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

As with the scalability, there are no issues with QC. It handles multiple connections very easily. And also if there is a crash on one machine where one test artifact is locked, the lock is automatically released in some time. But it would be great if there was recovery options built in after a crash.

How are customer service and technical support?

The technical support is prompt and understand business urgency.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have worked on TFS. The features of TFS are limited when compared to QC.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was pretty straightforward.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
PeerSpot user
it_user208659 - PeerSpot reviewer
it_user208659QA Lead at a logistics company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor

Any time Peter. Glad to help.

See all 4 comments
PeerSpot user
Technical Lead at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
It facilitates integration with automation tools and provides a centralized location for the testing life-cycle, giving traceability and visibility to all members and stakeholders of projects.

What is most valuable?

  • Test Plan
  • Test Lab
  • Defects
  • Requirements
  • Dashboard - Reports

How has it helped my organization?

  • Improved the work quality
  • Centralized location for the testing life-cycle
  • Traceability and visibility to all the members and stakeholders of projects
  • Standardization of test cases
  • Test case execution and validation
  • Ease of integration with automation tools like QTP, LoadRunner, SOATest etc.

What needs improvement?

The performance of this product is really poor, and there is no dashboard (reports) for the groups or users on the home page. Also, instead of one database, there are separate ones for each project.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've used it for three years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No issues encountered.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

If you add any custom workflow (scripting), then in the long run there will be a deviation in application performance.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

It's excellent.

Technical Support:

It's excellent, but they don't support scripting unless it's in your PO.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We used JIRA. Its is also a good tool for defect tracking, but due to the lack of test and requirements management in JIRA, we have moved to ALM.

How was the initial setup?

Straightforward. I've gone through the installation admin, and followed the same steps and it was fine.

What about the implementation team?

We did it in-house.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

It's a bit costlier when compared to other tools on the market, and you have to haggle with HP for this product.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We also looked at TFS.

What other advice do I have?

Its a good tool for a perfect software development company where release/project roll outs happen on a planned basis. It's not a supportive tool for an agile environment.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user4923 - PeerSpot reviewer
QA Manager at a media company with 51-200 employees
Vendor
HPTC can be a beast if you let it get out of control and get too large a test plan, but has nice tools for testing against a certain release version

I've used HP-Test Center, Manits, and the more simpler Rally based test plan tool among a bunch of others. HPTC can be a beast if you let it get out of control and get too large a test plan, but has nice tools for testing against a certain release version and is a bit water-fally.

Mantis is good for a scrum based setup. But then again it depends on what your testing, size of the testing staff, and how long they (SMs, BMs, and PMs) give you in a testing cycle. In the more Agile shops, testing has to have a quicker turn around and is more feature-targeted so big systems like HPTC, while nicely thorough, tend to become big projects to maintain. The choice has to meet the type, organizational scope, and Agile-ness of testing project you have.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Test Manager/Senior Testing Engineer at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Consultant
It provides Defects Synchronization to other tools, such as Borland StarTeam and JIRA.

Valuable Features:

  • Requirements
  • Test Plan/Lab 
  • Defects
  • The sprinter is a great feature in the manual runner.
  • Reporting
  • Analysis
  • Version Control
  • Exporting and Importing
  • Document Generator
  • Defects Synchronization to other tools like Borland StarTeam and JIRA, for example

Room for Improvement:

Accessibility! The reason I gave it a 9 not 10, is that I doesn’t support Apple machines or any browsers other than IE, and even then, later than IE 10! This is a big problem if the development team who should be working on defects are using Apple machines, which is very common. This is also a big problem for us if higher management wants to take a look on defects for one reason or the other. They are usually on the run and can’t access it using their iPads, for example.

This is a problem that JIRA solved, and it's now practically accessible from any browser on any type of operating system, and can be opened on a cellphone/tablet browser or through mobile applications. It’s perfect when it comes to accessibility and this is what Quality Center desperately needs.

Use of Solution:

I have been using it for more than six years.

Stability Issues:

Performance issues are very common. The degradation of performance and consequent failures continuously happen. “Failed to Login” errors are common as well, and some random issues like creating the issue twice and deleting one deletes the other, etc.

Scalability Issues:

No issues encountered.

Other Advice:

It's the perfect tool for testing purposes, but you need to consider other options if development teams do not use the environments supported by Quality Center.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Senior Engineer in QA at a transportation company with 501-1,000 employees
Vendor
Good test management tool

What is most valuable?

Dashboard, Uploading test cases, test execution.

How has it helped my organization?

It provides the entire test management suite, right from the initial phase of testing till the delivery.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used this tool for 1.5 years

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

No issues.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service: 8 out of 10Technical Support: 8 out of 10

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

We weren't previously using another solution.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user1012047 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Quality Assurance Manager at Westar Energy, Inc.
Real User
Helps focus on requirements, testing, and execution.

What is our primary use case?

Quality assurance, requirement, and testing.

How has it helped my organization?

ALM helps focus on requirements, test, and the execution, track your defects, etc.

What is most valuable?

  • Requirements
  • Test
  • Release process
  • Defect tracking.

What needs improvement?

Release management and integration with other tools.

For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free OpenText ALM / Quality Center Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: May 2024
Buyer's Guide
Download our free OpenText ALM / Quality Center Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.