The initial setup is quite easy. 

When we were installing for the first time, it was not simple. We could not just go to the URL and install. There were some initial installations problems with IE where we have to add the URL and make it a trust site. This had to be done by an admin, which takes times. I would like to see this improved. 

After the installation, we didn't have any problems with deployment or integration into our environment.

We can open this solution by URL and access the application where it runs to the server. We do have a restriction when installing infrastructure applications. We have to ask our IT to have our admin install it.

Admins should not need to directly install objects into the application. This should be done directly into the server or cloud.

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.

Even within Pick n Pay it is straightforward to do an upgrade. First, uninstall then install the new product or the new version, and if you keep to the same database server, it will pick up all your information and all the projects and everything you have. I've also been involved in areas where we run it via the load balancer and if you follow the documentation, it's quite easy to set up.

An upgrade does not take more than two hours. The initial setup might be a bit longer, about four hours, depending on if you have access to the right database server, if you have all the correct admin rights on the database server, and things like that. If you follow the steps in the installation guide before you start with the install, and you get that right, or get your users set up correctly on the DBA side, it's not a problem. It can take three to four hours.

The setup of Micro Focus ALM Quality Center is not easy. It is time-consuming and complex. There is a lot of work that needs to be done on the backend. I have already spent seven hours of my time and I have not completed it yet. I have another seven hours or more of evaluation and checking before I roll it out.

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.

I wasn't involved with it when it was first implemented for the program. I've worked on it in past companies, but it was forced to fit into meeting minimum requirements. So now, we're actually in the process of evaluating best practice and integrations with other tools such as Solution Manager and ServiceNow.

The install/uninstall of the updates are fast and easy. Many of the no-brainer configuration settings are set up correctly out-of-the-box. To be fair, we do have a 20-page document that walks through all the settings to check.

The initial setup was straightforward. It was taken care of by another team in our organization.

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

It was straightforward. There were no complications in setting it up at all.

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.

The initial set-up required a lot of resources, such as the Oracle DBA, because Quality Center stores its information in tables in a database. You also have to plan and coordinate with System Analysts what servers will be used along with the architecture.

There are challenges related to the network security during the set up. But, once you figure it out, solution is relatively easy.

The setup was straightforward.

I wasn't involved in the initial setup.

The initial setup is straightforward, it was not any more difficult than other setups.

The initial setup was pretty straightforward. The process was just about our customization, which we do from our end and is admin guided. This took us around a couple of weeks and wasn't cumbersome at all. ALM is a mature product. We could set up how we wanted to upload our test cases, then structure the different parameters or columns the way we wanted them. The process was quite streamlined.

It is very intuitive and wasn't complex for me. I like to work with it, but there are a lot of new users, and it's very complex for them to understand using Quality Center in the beginning.

We jumped right in and didn't have an implementation strategy.

We had a lot of problems with the new installation.

Setting up ALM Quality Center is easy. It's not complicated to set up the on-premises solution.

When we do a version upgrade, we first take a backup of whatever data is in ALM and move it to a Linux server. There is setup guidance for the installation process. Once we install it, then we'll move the existing data back. 

One good thing in ALM is that there is a predefined template when creating the projects. We just copy that template and everything comes together. Whatever the mandatory requirements are will be there with all the tabs. And, if required based on the business needs and the project, we will create new tabs with whatever fields are needed. That is good.

The initial setup is relatively easy but we hired a third-party organization to assist. 

We have four admins that can maintain the product.

The initial setup is complex in terms of understanding everything and building up the infrastructure required for deploying it. Setting up all the infrastructure from the servers to the database, to load balancers can be difficult. Many things are there. It takes a good amount of knowledge actually to deploy it correctly.

The setup was a one-time thing and I didn't find it difficult.

We're a company that has gone through a lot of mergers and consolidations, and we've gone through and actually consolidated a lot of instances into ALM and, with that, the complexity is more with the users than it is with the application.

Getting it installed, getting it set up, that's the easy part. Getting people trained to use it, that's a little bit harder. But once people start using it, they find that they're not sure how they did their job before.

If you follow the instruction, the setup is straightforward. It definitely requires an experience user to do the installation and setups, especially for upgrades.

The first time we installed it was a long, long time ago. We bought small, five license versions of Test Director from Mercury in 2007 and it has continuously grown since then. Today we have 600 users and 130 active projects. The environment gets bigger and bigger all the time.

It's complicated to upgrade. For ALM, we have roughly 600 users. In ALM, we have roughly 130 active projects. So it takes a long time to upgrade. Some of the big projects are 5 GB of data. To migrate that to a new version takes maybe two or three hours, even if we have huge hardware. 

It's very complicated. We'd gladly like to upgrade to newer versions. We plan to use Octane, but we will not end up in a situation where we have two tools. We would like to, but we must find a smarter way to do some kind of migration. Several of the applications have regulations that we follow and we must be able to track 10 years back. We can't just throw away the data we have in there. 

If not upgrading ALM, probably they would like to search and would like to find something else. They really need to find a smart way to migrate some part of it. Of course, it's a totally different tool.

It's not exactly straightforward. Their instructions were not all they could have been, but we still got it installed.

Quality Center has a very intuitive GUI which makes it fairly easy to use and follow. Even if you are a beginner picking up on how to use this product will not take much time. But it can be difficult to implement as it is dependent on the size of the organization on the amount of teams. Identifying current methods of communications is critical to implementing HP Quality Center.

It doesn't take a long time to install this solution.

The initial setup was pretty straightforward. We had engineers come in and they gave us training and showed us what we would be doing. They were very supportive, from the customer onboarding perspective. They did a very good job. Initially, there was all this complexity. We didn't know how to manage it because it was very new to the team. They came and trained us very well. To put it simply, the onboarding process was amazing. We have monthly sessions with their team and we have continuous contact. It's pretty organized.

They started the planning two months ahead. Everything happened in a proper, planned way. That is something I really like about Micro Focus. The initial installation took almost two months. In part, that was because of internal problems. We were using Excel and some other tools. To migrate from there to ALM took some time. That included moving the data. We had to make sure that whatever data we had was not lost and that even the number of test cases was the same as what we had before.

Upgrades happen in a single day, or sometimes two to three days.

In terms of the implementation, it happened a long time ago. They first asked us for a timeline and they then held multiple sessions on the features and the abilities of the tool, with multiple teams over the course of two to three weeks. After that they came and deployed ALM itself and tested the compatibility with our machines, because we had some desktops and laptops. That took some time. Micro Focus gave us an installer that we had to push to all our machines. Once all the machines were updated with the installer, we started using it.

The initial setup was highly complex, mostly because of the database setup. Upgrades are even worse, especially if you need to migrate to a new server, since the repository needs to be copied over.

Setup was a very smoothly written, spot-on theater.

For ALM it was complex because it's not fully web based so you need to install a client on your desktop and with all the Windows security stuff you need to be an admin on your desktop so it's a very complex set up. On the service side it's kind of complex but we have tech experienced people to do that and to set up the database and everything, so it's OK. With Octane it should be really much simpler because for the user because it's just a web application so you've got nothing to do.

The initial setup is straightforward.

I wasn't part of the team who set up Micro Focus ALM Quality Center, so I don't have information on whether the process was straightforward or complex.

I was involved in the initial setup. I installed configure, manager, and the patch providing user access, though now we have a team.

The setup is straightforward. It's not hard to set up. We even used the multi-complicated one because we didn't want have the database alone.

The initial setup was straightforward, as I’m new to US Cellular and the tool/processes were in place when I got here. We are making some changes to drive improvement, but we are also analyzing how to go agile which isn’t easy.

I was not involved in the initial setup back in those days. A couple contractors did it. It was called TestDirector in those days. I'm going to have a look at the new HPE ALM Octane later.

My experience with it, in general, is that the initial setup is not easy and that upgrades are dreaded. Companies tend to not go through the upgrade process because it causes many different types of issues, especially on the database side. This seems to be a longstanding bug with the management of permissions that goes all the way back to quality center days that have never been addressed. 

I would say that the initial setup is not easy at all.

It was simple enough. It did not take much time. The first time we used it only for testing. When we used it for requirements management, it was a little bit more difficult, and we had to re-train our users on how to use the tool.

The initial setup was a little complex. For example, compared to installing Oracle applications, ALM is straightforward and easy.

The initial setup is quite easy, if you know what you are doing. 

No. It's been there about three years. I wasn't part of the team at that time.

When we installed it we had a problem because it's running on Linux and we needed to create our infrastructure for installing Linux which was a big problem. The previous version of ALM was working on Windows. But we resolved these problems.

It was initially setup within my organization but I didn't really have any hands-on involvement with it. Our direct teams were involved in this process. Based on the staff that we have today, it was very straightforward and very easy to do. Then again, we've got people who had experience with the tool so they've done it before.

It's not a big deal to upgrade the version we have. We've had issues in the past, however. We've had problems with user handling and would like to incorporate it with Windows Director or SSO functionality. That's available in later versions, and we haven't upgraded to that yet.

We started with an empty ALM originally and filled it with content. It's been a long, historic journey from implementation to upgrades. 

I was not involved in the initial setup. It was set up by other people.

Initial setup was straightforward.

If someone is doing the setup for the first time, it might be a little complex for them. However, if you are continuously upgrading, then it should be fine, because all of our upgrades we have done in-house. We never went to a company to get that bit done. If you plan it right, you can have the upgrade very smoothly done, so the user isn't affected.

The initial setup was not complex.

Extremely complex, and unnecessarily so. Main reason was HPE QC doesn’t do a good job of explaining how you can keep it simple and still get the same job done. The tool is ready to do a great job, its how it gets implemented that is the real problem.

In one instance, it was straightforward because anything was better than spreadsheets.

In the location that used Lotus Notes, there was a significant amount of resistance because of loss of control.

Neither instance was due to the tool, but it was due to cultural issues.

It was very easy. LeanFT came with UFT 12.5 and greater. Just deploying the UFT package which we're very comfortable with, we were able to deploy LeanFT as well.

It's very straightforward.

As large as it is, it's pretty straightforward to put in and you can configure it in probably less than an hour.

It's simple, but customization adopting for a regulated environment is complex as it requires 15,000 lines of code.

I've deployed it in many organizations because I'm a consultant. I've deployed it, upgraded it, customized it, in various ways for different customers.

In terms of complexity, it really depends on the needs of the customer.

When I was a customer in a small development organization that only had 20 people in the entire company, I deployed it, I did the customization - that was way back in the day.

Now, I have customers along the entire spectrum from small to large enterprise. Some customers are okay with near vanilla, out of the box. And some customers have very complex sets of business logic that they feel, for whatever reason, need to be enforced as far as how their defect management lifecycle is going to go. How their test construction, test execution lifecycle is going to go, how they want to manage requirements, and that can require significant customization.

Some of my customers have compliance concerns, they have digital signatures and they have FDA 21 CFR Part 11 compliance. They have all of these rules that they have to follow and some of them are subject to interpretation, so with one particular rule I have one customer who says, "This is how we interpret the rule," and they have me customize it one way; and I have another customer who says, "No, we're not going to interpret it that, way we interpret this way," and it's a completely different set of customizations.

Nope, the architecture is simple to implement and scale.

Yes, setup was fairly straightforward. It needed a little help with regards to the license server on the development platform, but once that was sorted out everything was smooth sailing.

The initial setup was okay.

It's not straightforward because for us it was because it was an upgrade of the infrastructure as well. So at the same time we changed the server, we also changed the infrastructure. It was not because of the product itself, it was more linked to what we needed to do at that time.

Setting it up is not too difficult.

The documentation is not always easy to follow but the answers can be found on the support forum and help desk.

Setup was straightforward once the needed hardware was defined and in place.

Initial setup of HPE ALM is relatively easy. However, it does become more complex when the product must be configured to meet company needs and compliance policies. This includes site configuration parameters, migrating existing projects from a previous version, securing access, and implementing integration to other HPE products such as HPE Performance Center. Many of these considerations are documented within the HPE ALM Installation and Upgrade Guide.

Initial setup is very simple, but the upgrade on Linux is impossible so we moved to Windows.

There's always room for improvement and additional customization that would be nice. In general, both solutions are quite easy to install.

I have an entire team, so I'm a director and I have an entire tools team that does that. I did get involved in the planning and the strategy of how we're going to do it. My team said that first installation is relatively easy. When we go to upgrade and migrate, that's where there's pain.

Almost every customer will say the upgrades and migrations are very painful. They could be way easier. A lot of it has to do with having to upgrade the data, the in-place database or stand up in entirety, it's just cumbersome. It's very cumbersome and it takes a long time, longer than it probably should. That's a pain point that I think everyone has. Fortunately in our case, we've never had to call professional services to do it. I have a lot of customers say they couldn't get through the upgrade without it. Now, on the support side, it was really helpful, they were on the phone our first major migration for 72 hours.

It was great to literally be in that, "Hey, we're going through it," they were there the whole time, which was really awesome. We didn't have to involve professional services, but that was a good story to say, "Hey, they're on the phone with us. They're grinding it." So the whole 72-hour period we had someone from support cycle in. They did the hand-offs and all that stuff while our team was grinding off. So that was a good story there.

I was there, but I wasn't involved. I was an independent contributor.

I came in and decided that we needed to upgrade to v12. We reached out to our vendor partner, Checkpoint Technologies, and they came in, assessed what it would take to upgrade it, and they did the upgrade for us.

The initial setup is quite straightforward. It's easy. We didn't face any difficulties at all. I wouldn't describe the process as complex.

Initial setup was not that complex.

I was not involved in the initial setup.

It's very straightforward and the pre-sales guys are really good.

From a project team standpoint, the setup was very straightforward. All the tools are accessible and installable via browser.

Our implementation and setup was somewhat complex do to our enterprise architecture. We have multiple divisions across two companies that share the same servers and architecture but have different needs with regards to setting up and managing projects.

The installation and configuration of an HP ALM site is straightforward for those with enterprise software deployment experience. An installation requires at minimum, a dedicated server with an operating system and database connection. The most typical, physical or virtual, hardware configuration I encountered over the years was a single Microsoft Windows server running web, license and application software servers. Both Oracle and MS SQL Server databases respond adequately, and when given a choice now select a schema based on DBA agreeability.

The installation of an HP ALM site establishes a service endpoint for communicating with other applications via Web Services. I believe the configuration and management of these services is the most complex part of a site installation and requires substantial planning to map fields and permissions across multiple applications.

I never had to set it up from scratch.

The fact that we've got it in the cloud at the moment, as software as a service, enables us to keep up to date. If it's a back-end or a server-only change, it just gets done. That's the beauty of the arrangement we have with a SaaS or cloud-based version. 

We started using the cloud-based version about four years ago. The setup was very easy and very quick. I did the migration. We had to unload the databases on-premise and FTP them across to the cloud overnight. We did it project-by-project or by groups of projects. Each one of them had its own backup/transmit/reload. They then went through a series of validations and were up and running the next day.

I did it on a project-by-project basis because there was a lot of data that had to go across and be uploaded to the cloud. Once it was up there, I logged on, checked it, and then got the SMEs from the different projects to validate that everything they needed was there.

Having to package up and coordinate clients is, occasionally, difficult, but that's just a project management issue: scheduling things at the right time. Sometimes we have problems and we have to go in and individually blow away components for the product for the client. That's more because of our setup, our configuration on our network, than it is the tool set. We do that with most tools. Occasionally have to rebuild when we've had version upgrades, but not for everybody.

For maintenance there's only two of us, myself and one of the guys that works for me.

It could be complex depending on the setup. However, I have done this for a number of years and do not have any issues with it.

HPE has one of the most complicated installations. Upgrades are a nightmare. Even HPE recommends doing a fresh installation and a cut-over.

HPE ALM Quality Center, (formerly HP Quality Center, and before that, Mercury Test Director), has been in use for over 10 years.

It is easy enough to set up an ‘instance’ of HPE ALM.

However, it is recommended to understand the business and process it will be supporting. This will ensure that standards, additional fields, etc. are incorporated early in the design.

If decisions on how the application will be used are not defined early on, then a later project to standardize it may be required.

Without standards, data cannot be shared easily between ALM projects, databases, and third party tools.

The initial setup was pretty straightforward. We are the experts in Denmark. That means it's a bit easier for us because we know exactly what to do. Various customers use our services to do that for them because it can be very complex if you only do it on a rare occasion. If there is a customer who needs to upgrade from 11.5.2, for example, and they haven’t touched the administrator module for a couple of years, it is easier for us to do the upgrade because we do it all the time.

It does require a level of expertise to install/setup Quality Center. Doing it without any prior experience, could cause a delay in deployment, as well as unintended issues.

The setup was completed by another team. I am only a user, and I don't control this part of the installation.

Deployment depends on the size of the project. Usually in Agile, you have three weeks of deployment. It does not depend on ALM because it's very easy to start using and deploy the test and the execution test, then follow up.

There is a team of at least four people for maintenance of the solution.

It is fairly straightforward to set up. I didn't have any problems with it.

The installation is quite straightforward. Then, the implementation is based on one project, so it cannot go wrong.  This is for a very quick start. You will need more skilled people in your projects for implementation if you want reporting, traceability between requirement tests and defects, and release management. 

Setup and upgrades are complex.

Probably one of my biggest issues with the product is that it's so complex and hard to do. We even paid $30,000 for a consultant to come in. One year in, then we wanted this upgrade again, and they wanted to have a consultant come in again. I'm like, "We just did!"

So, we decided, "We're going to try it without it," and so far it's going well, but the complexity of it seems to be daunting to engineers, not like other tools that they implement and upgrade.

I used the software version of Quality Center, and the initial set-up was straightforward. After changing it to the web version, it was much better.

I wasn’t the admin for ALM so can’t really comment, but from an user standpoint I found it pretty simple.

Initial set-up in early 2013 was difficult as the product was new. PS did a good job in presenting the solution.

Setup was pretty straightforward. Obviously, we kind of had a bit of discussion internally, because we didn't take a traditional migration from the earlier product. We really started from scratch. That is still somewhat an issue for some of the deliveries, that they don’t want to use the agile method. But we have highly recommended this because they are two different worlds and that it would be better to plan it carefully and not just carry on all the crap from history.

ALM setup was pretty straightforward. We had standard problems like connecting to the active directory and making sure that the missions are set correctly and so on.

Straightforward, the only issue is doing patch updates as they touch the desktop client which makes it painful to update.

The initial setup was a little complex in terms of setting up the database. Deployment took between forty-five minutes and an hour.

While the setup is straightforward in general, the configuration is not quite as user-friendly. To configure the solution, you need to have many years of experience with the solution. Those that are new to it may face issues.

In terms of deployment, it takes about three days for the Quality Center installation as a whole. In contrast, Load Runner takes about two days in our case. 

The initial setup is pretty simple.

I was not involved in the initial setup, but I have been here for six or seven releases, new versions, and their installations. It is a straightforward process. It is not that complex, but we have needed the assistance of Micro Focus at times.

We have dedicated staff for deployment and maintenance of this solution. There are seven of us in the company working with Quality Center. One is a technical admin leader who takes care of Quality Center, and another is a project leader. Under them are project support people who work in shifts, 24/7, and create projects and provide support for users' technical issues.

The setup of ALM is, well, mixed. You know the old Java clients give some headaches. That's for ALM.

We have a lot of internal processes which elongates the process, but as far as the actual installation and configuration is concerned, it was reasonably straightforward.

It was straightforward.

The initial setup is not overly complex. It's pretty straightforward in general. A company shouldn't have any issues implementing it.

I can't speak to how long the deployment actually took. It varies from client to client. We've had clients that deployed in two to three weeks, and others that took months. It depends on many factors.

Straightforward.

The initial setup was straightforward as it it required little knowledge of the server to do a simple server-side installation.

It's straightforward.

I'll find out over the next couple of months as we are looking to do the first upgrade since I have been using it.

Not straightforward, it was a complex architecture.

The initial setup is more secure and procedural.

I was involved in moving us from the client to the SaaS and it was painful. We were on QC 10, and we had to move to QC SaaS. Because we're a bank, we have a ridiculous amount of firewalls.

So, we could not install QC SaaS and our tech support team didn't understand how to get it installed. Therefore, one of my team members had to figure out all of the nuts and bolts, then the HPE tech support was also slow in helping us. It actually took us many months to finally go from QC 10 to QC SaaS. I'm actually close to the end of my three-year license, and I'm seriously like, "Do I stay? Do I move?"

Complex. There are many steps to follow to set everything up for an upgrade, and if you make a mistake, it's catastrophic.

The setup was straightforward.

Another team was responsible for the setup.

The installation tools are not the best, even for experienced IT/admin, it self-corrupts, and there is no good tech support to help with install issues unless you pay them to fly in a team.

It was very easy and straightforward.

I'm not sure how easy or difficult the initial setup is. I don't know due to the fact that the setup is done by a support team and I am on the side of the user. To set up and maintain the tools on the server is not my job. I also do not know how long it takes to deploy the product. Therefore, I wouldn't be able to comment on it effectively.

That said, to install a new station on the client-side, not the server side, is very quick.

The software development company spent considerable resources in getting the system set up correctly using modifications developed in-house, as well as developing user guides that we could use for training users of the system.

It's straightforward. The user guide provides detailed steps on installation.

We have installed multiple versions and upgrades over the years and it can be very cumbersome.

At the bank, the setup took the local supplier over two days to complete. The issues were mostly around meshing into the bank's security and local IT systems.

ALM is a bit complex since it's scalable and everybody needs to use it. With everyone needing it, you have to open the firewalls to everyone, which makes it complex.

A little complex as it pertains to migrating databases, then manually linking them back up to the file repositories.

It's straightforward to operate, but you actually need to get involved with the concerning vendors when you need their support.

We cannot just go download anything from online and put it. We need some support from the concerning team to make sure everything is right.

The setup isn't too easy nor too difficult; I'd put it somewhere in the middle.

No.

The initial setup was pretty straightforward.

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

Initial setup was straightforward.

Straightforward.

Very simple setup.

No, I was not the admin of this application, and the setup itself is not complex, nor very straightforward (but somewhere in the middle).

The initial setup was straightforward.

Our internal technical team did it, but It was not tough though.

I was already used to setting up the directory-like structure in Test Plan.

It was complex, as I was not given permission to delete items, for example. Trying to create test cases via copy-and-paste can be cumbersome, and it was easy to misread the directory structure or put cases in the wrong location.

It depends on which version. The upgrade from version 9 to version 11 was not a straightforward upgrade because the whole platform changed. So the upgrade was a manual project and it took the organization a few months to upgrade all thousand projects.

Straightforward.

I was involved in the setup. It is an out-of-the-box, simple installation. Now we're doing data migration to the database. We are just reading the manual, but more people are involved. This is a normal process.

It was complex.

It was straightforward because the test manager was consulted on how to go about setting it up.

Initial setup is complex when you want to customize the product.

Initial setup was straightforward with installation and HPE provides tutorials for advanced modification.