Posts Tagged 'Management'

The Risks of Trusting Machines to Check Themselves

May 1, 2023

As we deploy AI and ML-based systems and applications is: how do we test them? With traditional software systems, humans write requirements, develop the system, and then have other humans (aided by computers) test them to ensure the results match. With AI/ML-developed systems, there often are no discrete requirements. Instead, there are large data sets, models, and feedback mechanisms. In this article, originally published on AI Business, we discuss the risks of letting machines check themselves and provide some potential solutions.

Improving Your Test Process with TMMi Assessments

April 6, 2023

by Experimentus, an Inflectra Partner

I was in a client call earlier in the week, discussing test process improvement, and they asked me what the most common improvement areas identified are.  As an individual and as an organisation we have assessed hundreds of organisations so I think that I’m well qualified to comment based on our experience.

In this article I am going to discuss the three most common areas where we see room for improvement, as well as why they are important:

• Risk management
• Review Process
• Metrics and KPIs

> Please take our quick test assessment survey today.

Inflectra Ninjas - Technical Assistance Drop-ins for Spira And Rapise Users

April 5, 2023

Inflectra is proud to introduce a new user engagement program called Inflectra Ninjas.

Inflectra Ninjas is a series of hour-long workshops where Inflectra’s technical support team, Devs, and testers help customers find solutions to their real-world challenges. This unscripted, some-to-many technical assistance drop-in will help facilitate a quicker adoption and ease of use of Inflectra’s flagship products: Spira and Rapise. 

Read more and sign up for upcoming sessions.

Using Risk-Driven Development (RDD) in Software Delivery

January 18, 2023

There is not a single industry today that does not use software to manage their projects or its portfolio of operations. Whether it is developing software that the company sells for their clients or assuring quality in the continuous realization of value through the operational value delivery pipeline, risk management is critical. Find out how you can use risk-driven development to deliver higher quality software at lower risk.

Webinar Recap: Lightning Session - How To Turbo-Charge Your Test Management with SpiraTest

December 20, 2022

We are excited to share a recap of our first Lightning Session in Inflectra’s newest series. This first event in our latest initiative is titled How To Turbo-Charge Your Test Management with SpiraTest. 

Continue to view the recording.

Risk Management: Definition, Importance, & Types

November 22, 2022

Unfortunately, all projects and undertakings involve some amount of uncertainty or risk. Whether it’s minuscule or highly likely, the consequences of risk can end up being costly on a number of levels — and when you’re unprepared, these consequences can be catastrophic. But what does risk management actually mean, why is it so crucial to a quality product, and how can you ensure that yours is strong?

Preparing for the GAMP Transition to Computer Software Assurance

November 10, 2022

Good Automated Manufacturing Practice (GAMP) is, inter alia, a set of guidelines for manufacturers and users of automated systems in the pharmaceutical industry. GAMP is part of the medical industry’s risk management approach in software development and supports software testing and validation. We thought it would be useful to highlight where GAMP is going as part of the latest guidelines from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and how SpiraPlan can help you get there.

Using SpiraPlan for Risk-Based Testing

November 9, 2022

Risk-Based Testing (RBT) is a software testing type that is based on the probability of risk. It involves assessing the risk based on software complexity, the criticality of business, frequency of use, possible areas with defects, and areas of the system that have changed the most. Risk-based testing prioritizes the testing of features and functions of the software application which have the most likely exposure to risks and therefore most likely to have defects. In this article, we discuss some of the ways SpiraPlan can assist you with your Risk Based Testing.

Risk Management and Software Quality: Expert Panel Webinar Recap

October 5, 2022

September 8, 2022: Inflectra and Tezza Business Solutions collaborated in a joint webinar aimed to raise awareness of the importance of the symbiotic relationship between Risk Management and Software Quality Assurance, particularly related to the financial industries in West Africa. The webinar brought together three eminent panelists, West Africa’s first EC-Council Licensed Penetration Tester, Obadare Peter Adewale, Head of Enablement for FNB Mozambique, Gui Texeira, and the Chief Executive Officer of Tezza Solutions, Roland Omoresemi. The session was moderated by Inflectra’s Enterprise Agile Evangelist, Sriram Rajagopalan, who navigated the panelists through the challenges of adopting Agile framework in West Africa, the binding regulations in the financial industry, and the technology tools required to improve transparency, inspection, and adaptation. 

Recap: Application Lifecycle Management Scenarios with SpiraPlan

October 3, 2022

We recently demonstrated SpiraPlan to a large, multinational life sciences manufacturing company. During the series of demonstrations and proof concepts, we configured SpiraPlan for a set of different use cases, including demand management, application portfolio management, vendor selection and management, change management, application decommissioning, configuration management, supplier qualification, and more. In a series of articles based on those demonstrations, we highlighted many different use cases and provided best practices and ideas for how to configure SpiraPlan. This concluding article recaps the different use cases in one easy to use post.

Using SpiraPlan for Configuration & Change Management

September 29, 2022

We recently demonstrated SpiraPlan to a large, multinational life sciences manufacturing company. During the series of demonstrations and proof concepts, we configured SpiraPlan for a set of different use cases, including demand management, application portfolio management, vendor selection and management, change management, application decommissioning, configuration management, and supplier qualification. In this series of articles, we will be highlighting these different use cases and providing best practices and ideas for how to configure SpiraPlan. In this article we will be covering the topic of configuration management and change management.

Value Stream Management with SpiraPlan

September 28, 2022

We recently demonstrated SpiraPlan to a large, multinational manufacturing company. During the series of demonstrations and proof concepts, we configured SpiraPlan for a set of different use cases, including demand management, program management, portfolio management, configuration management, and value-stream management. In this article we will be covering the topic of value stream management and value stream mapping

Test Automation & Digital QA Summit 2022 Recap

September 27, 2022

Adam Sandman, or CEO was excited to present his talk "Are You Ready to Run the Risk - Introduction to Risk Based Testing" at the recent TestingMind Test Automation and Digital QA Summit  2022 (#TAS22) in Washington, DC.

Using SpiraPlan for Application Decommissioning

September 26, 2022

We recently demonstrated SpiraPlan to a large, multinational life sciences manufacturing company. During the series of demonstrations and proof concepts, we configured SpiraPlan for a set of different use cases, including demand management, application portfolio management, vendor selection and management, change management, application decommissioning, configuration management, and supplier qualification. In this series of articles, we will be highlighting these different use cases and providing best practices and ideas for how to configure SpiraPlan. In this article we will be covering the topic of application decommissioning.

Spotlight on SpiraPlan 7.2 - Project Charters

September 19, 2022

We are excited about the upcoming release of SpiraPlan 7.2 next month, it will have many enhancements and security fixes (following our most recent pen-test) as well as two major planned new features - product/project custom properties and an integrated spreadsheet editor. In this article we will be discussing the new project / product custom properties and how you can use them for creating and managing a project charter.

Spotlight on SpiraPlan 7.2 - Project Portfolio Management

September 15, 2022

We are excited about the upcoming release of SpiraPlan 7.2 next month. It will have many enhancements, security fixes (following our most recent pen-test), and two major planned new features - product/project custom properties and an integrated spreadsheet editor. This article discusses the new project/product custom properties and how to use them for project portfolio management (PPM).

Using SpiraPlan for Application Portfolio Management

August 15, 2022

We recently demonstrated SpiraPlan to a large, multinational life sciences manufacturing company. During the series of demonstrations and proof concepts, we configured SpiraPlan for a set of different use cases, including demand management, application portfolio management, vendor selection and management, change management, application decommissioning, configuration management, and supplier qualification. In this series of articles, we will be highlighting these different use cases and providing best practices and ideas for how to configure SpiraPlan. In this article we will be covering the topic of application portfolio management.

Using SpiraPlan for Supplier Qualification

August 2, 2022

We recently demonstrated SpiraPlan to a large, multinational life sciences manufacturing company. During the series of demonstrations and proof of concepts, we configured SpiraPlan for a set of different use cases, including demand management, application portfolio management, vendor selection and management, change management, application decommissioning, configuration management, and supplier qualification. In this series of articles, we will be highlighting these different use cases and providing best practices and ideas for how to configure SpiraPlan. In this article we will be covering the topic of supplier qualification.

Using SpiraPlan for Vendor Selection & Management

July 20, 2022

We recently demonstrated SpiraPlan to a large, multinational life sciences manufacturing company. During the series of demonstrations and proof of concepts, we configured SpiraPlan for a set of different use cases, including demand management, application portfolio management, vendor selection and management, change management, application decommissioning, configuration management, and supplier qualification. In this series of articles, we will be highlighting these different use cases and providing best practices and ideas for how to configure SpiraPlan. In this article we will be covering the topic of vendor selection and management.

Series of Conversations On Risk and Risk Management - The Expert Panel

June 24, 2022

Inflectra has launched a series of conversations about Risk Management. In the four virtual events, a panel of expert speakers will highlight lessons learned and best practices in risk prevention, mitigation, and management. This series will cover business, security, operational and technical risks. A particular emphasis will be on addressing risk in regulated industries that work with mission- and safety-critical applications. 

Starting on July 14, 2022, the series will cover four topics:

1. Current Issues in Risk Management
2. Security as Risk
3. Implementing FMEA in the Age of IoT
4. Embedding GAMP Compliance into Digital Health Software

Series details are enclosed.

Using SpiraPlan for Demand Management

May 25, 2022

We recently demonstrated SpiraPlan to a large, multinational life sciences manufacturing company. During the series of demonstrations and proof concepts, we configured SpiraPlan for a set of different use cases, including demand management, application portfolio management, vendor selection and management, change management, application decommissioning, configuration management, and supplier qualification. In this series of articles, we will be highlighting these different use cases and providing best practices and ideas for how to configure SpiraPlan. In this article we will be covering the topic of demand management.

Spotlight on SpiraPlan 7.0: FMEA Risk Management Comes To Town

January 27, 2022

As part of the upcoming release of Spira 7.0 in a few months' time, we have added a new plugin architecture that lets us add new specialty features and integrations more easily. In the future, it will also allow customers and partners to build extensions to Spira. We previously mentioned some of the planned plugins we have coming - GitHub, GitLab. In addition, we have a new plugin that will provide support for Failure Mode & Effects Analysis (FMEA) in the Risk Management module in SpiraPlan.

New Whitepaper - How To Choose A Risk Management Tool

November 1, 2021

Organizations exist to create value for their customers, shareholders, and stakeholders. Their survival depends on the impact of several known and unknown uncertainties emerging from many types of risks that challenge their ability to deliver value continuously. If you don’t manage risk, risk will manage you. The latter won’t be pleasant for your project.

Spotlight on KronoDesk 4.0 - LDAP and ActiveDirectory Integration

July 19, 2021

Our development team has been working feverishly on the next version of KronoDesk, our acclaimed help desk solution that adds service desk functionality to our Spira platform. There are many new features and improvements as part of KronoDesk 4.0, and this article focuses on the new support for Microsoft ActiveDirectory and LDAP that will be available in the new version.

Use Case Mapping with SpiraTeam and SpiraPlan

July 15, 2021

A customer recently posed this question to us:

We are gathering requirements following a standard template for use cases. In that template we record main scenario and alternative flows like shown on the example below. What is the best way to map primary and alternate use case process flows to requirements inside Spira?

This is a relatively common question, so in this blog we outline some ways you can manage and map use cases inside Spira....

Webinar Recap: The 4th Industrial Revolution: Industry Trends Post COVID-19

July 7, 2021

On July 1st, Inflectra and Sriram Rajagopalan, Ph.D., hosted a webinar on the 4th Industrial Revolution: Industry Trends Post COVID-19, covering the following areas of interest:

1. Overview of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR): cyber-physical systems and a transition past the 3rd Industrial Revolution 

2. Introduction to the Six Global Megatrends: globalization 2.0, technological convergence, a digital era of 4IR

3. Lessons learned from COVID-19: impact on industries and acceleration of trends 

4. The emergence of risk management as a cross-functional domain across all roles and products in the enterprise.

The webinar presentation, blog, and recording are enclosed here👇

Spira v.6 Getting Started Videos Are Here!

May 26, 2021

Welcome to your one-stop-shop for all Spira v6 Getting Started Videos! 

We are glad you are interested in learning the fundamentals of Inflectra’s QA, ALM, and Enterprise Agile Program Management platforms! This video playlist will help you to smoothly navigate our award-winning platforms, onboard your team members, as well as help you toward your Spira certification efforts under Inflectra's new Initiative called Spira Academy!

The below series of videos explores the most fundamental aspects of the three Spira platforms - SpiraTest, SpiraTeam, and SpiraPlan. The videos are divided into:

• the Cross-Cutting Spira features for all Spira products, 

• the SpiraTeam and SpiraPlan-only features. 

Begin your adventure with our Getting Started with Spira series’ below!

Webinar Recap: Spira v6.9 - OData, Baselining and Requirements Management

May 13, 2021

On May 12th, Inflectra hosted a webinar on Spira version 6.9 in which we covered the new and enhanced functionality, including:

• Enhanced Requirements Management Document Views

• New Odata functionality for SpiraPlan

• 99 Custom Properties

• Baselining enhancements for SpiraTeam and SpiraPlan. 

If you missed the webinar, we have a full for your cap below 👇

Spotlight on Spira 6.9 - Requirements Management Document View

April 15, 2021

It is widely agreed in the software industry that one of the keys to delivering high-quality products is to get the requirements "right." However, there is far less consensus on what "right" actually means and even less consensus on the best way to get there. So having powerful requirements management and requirements traceability is vitally important to the software development and testing process. In our latest version of SpiraTeam and SpiraPlan, we have improved the new requirements document view to make it more useful for business analysts (BAs) and other team members.

Recap: Managing A Drug Development Lifecycle

February 19, 2021

On February 18, 2021, Inflectra's Sriram Rajagopalan, Ph.D., led a discussion on the An Emerging Role of Project Management in Drug Discovery and Supply Chain. If you missed the webinar, please enjoy this recap, complete with the video recording and the presentation. 

In this webinar, the presenter covered the following topics: 

• Key stages of drug management lifecycle 
• Responsibilities of Project and Program Management in the drug management lifecycle 
• Risk management and process guidance in the drug management lifecycle 
• How to apply Agile Thinking to the drug discovery lifecycle.

Spotlight on Spira 6.8 - Inline Content Editing of Rich Text and Markdown

January 25, 2021

We are excited about the next release of Spira 6.8, due to be released in March. This new version includes major enhancements to the documents management module to allow users the create and edit inline content directly in Spira. Customers have asked us for ways to make authoring the unstructured, freeform content easier in Spira, similar to how they could use a Wiki, Google Docs, or Confluence page. This new functionality lets you write plain text, rich text, and markdown inside Spira and have all of the versioning and workflow capabilities at your disposal. Of course, you can link this content to your requirements, test cases, and other Spira artifacts.

Spotlight on Spira 6.7.1 - Generating Documents from Reports

January 7, 2021

We are excited about the next release of Spira 6.7.1, due to be released in early February 2021. One of the key new features is the ability to automatically save generated reports from the Reports center into the Documents Management module, where they can be archived and versioned.

Spotlight on Spira 6.7 - Markdown Preview & Rendering Capability

November 17, 2020

We are excited about the next release of Spira 6.7 that is due to be released in early December. As mentioned in the previous article on the new release, a key area of focus in this new release is improving the experience and functionality for developers and development teams. With that in mind, we have revamped the source code management and documents management module, and for the first time, there is now a way to view rendered markdown files directly in Spira.

Webinar Recap: Why Use a “Benefits Register” in Programs and Portfolios

June 22, 2020

On June 16th, 2020, Inflectra's agile champion - Sriram Rajagopalan, Ph.D. hosted the last webinar in the Risk Management webinar series. The webinar explored why to use a “Benefits Register” in programs and portfolios. 

If you missed the webinar, please enjoy this recap, complete with a video recording.

Webinar Agenda:

The webinar covered the following areas:

• How to establish the value of benefits in the program and portfolios
• The important principles of benefits register
• The approaches to using the benefits register in value delivery
• How to use the Benefits Register effectively. 

Spotlight on Spira 6.5.1 - Program & Portfolio Enhancements for DevOps

June 10, 2020

As we get ready for the upcoming release of SpiraTest, SpiraTeam, and SpiraPlan, we'd like to introduce some of the new functionality that will be available in this release. This release builds on top of the new program and portfolio management views in v6.5 and adds some new features and reporting widgets.

The Business Case for Test Management With SpiraTest

May 5, 2020

Often we get asked the question, how do you determine the Return on Investment (ROI) of purchasing and using SpiraTest to manage a team's requirements, test cases and defects. If the organization in question is using another tool (for example Micro Focus / HP ALM) it is easy, you simply compare features and license cost. However what is the ROI and business case for teams that are using manual methods, using MS-Word and MS-Excel instead of a tool? This is a bit trickier to calculate, so don't worry - we've put together a handy spreadsheet to help you out!

Webinar Recap: Why to Use RACI to Manage Stakeholders?

April 28, 2020

On April 23, 2020, Inflectra and #SriramRajagopalan hosted a webinar called: Why to use RACI to Manage Stakeholders? This is the 1st webinar in the Risk Management series by Inflectra. If you missed the webinar, please enjoy the recap in this blog.

Main Take-Aways:

The webinar covers the following topics:

• how to establish the importance of engaging stakeholders
• review the stakeholder engagement tools
• understanding the role that RACI plays in an organizational context
• review the patterns in using the RACI correctly.

Spotlight on Spira 6.5 - Portfolio & Program Management Enhancements

April 23, 2020

As we get ready for the upcoming release of SpiraTest, SpiraTeam, and SpiraPlan, we'd like to introduce some of the new functionality that will be available in this release. This release includes two main features, plus lots of smaller enhancements and bug fixes. The two main marquee features are Portfolio and Program Management Dashboards, and new additional views of the release and task pages, including a Gantt view that will enhance our support for traditional waterfall and hybrid projects.

New Ways To Use Project Management Software for More Efficient Projects

April 1, 2020

Project management software has been around long enough that it’s fairly ubiquitous for businesses of all types. Teams from sales and marketing to manufacturing and software development use project management software to organize the myriad moving parts of business projects. But modern project management software doesn’t stop at tracking projects. Valuable features and reporting built right into today’s PM platforms make it easy for teams to use the software to help them build better processes, save time, and increase profitability across an organization.

Theory Behind Top 5 Techniques for Managing Programs and Portfolios

February 12, 2020

In the following article, Sriram Rajagopalan - Inflectra's Enterprise Agile Champion shares his thoughts and experience managing program and portfolios. 

This blog complements Inflectra's February 7th webinar on the same topic, with the webinar recording available inside.

Theory Behind Incorporating Lean & Kanban in Product Lifecycle Management

February 4, 2020

In the following post Sriram Rajagopalan - Inflectra's Enterprise Agile Champion discusses the theory of leadership in product management and the use of lean approaches for acceleration of organizational growth

This blog complements Inflectra's January 23 webinar on the same topic, with the webinar recording available inside.

Webinar Recap: How To Incorporate Lean & Kanban in Product Lifecycle Management

February 4, 2020

On January 23, 2020 Inflectra hosted a live webinar: How To Incorporate Lean & Kanban in Product Lifecycle Management. If you missed the webinar, here is a recap of the most important take-aways 👇:

Product Development Tools - The Top 10 Features

December 12, 2019

SpiraPlan is an easy to use, complete solution for managing your product development lifecycle. In this article we discuss the top 10 features you should look for in a product development tool, and why you should choose SpiraPlan over other tools on the market that offer features for product development.

Spotlight on SpiraPlan 6.2 - Risk Management Enhancements

August 20, 2019

As we get ready for the release of SpiraPlan 6.2 later this month, we'd like too introduce some of the new functionality that will be available in this release. In the third installment of this series, we're excited to announce some key enhancements to the risk management module in SpiraPlan. This new functionality extends the power of the risk management features and also better integrates them into the rest of the SpiraPlan platform.

Spotlight on SpiraTeam 6.2 - New Requirements Management Views

August 8, 2019

As we get ready for the release of SpiraTest, SpiraTeam, and SpiraPlan 6.2 later this month, we'd like too introduce some of the new functionality that will be available in this release. In the first installment of this series, we're excited to announce the new requirements management views that have been added to SpiraTeam and SpiraPlan 6.2. They are designed to better serve the needs of the Business Analyst community who often need different views of requirements than the project teams and project managers.

Some Tips and Tricks using Risk Management in SpiraPlan

June 20, 2019

The theme this month is Risk Management, with the new functionality available in SpiraPlan v6.0 as well as the article on Risk Management in Agile Initiatives from Dr. Sriram Rajagopalan that we features earlier in the week. In this article we discuss some important tricks and tips from one of our key partners - Peter Brackstone from Influence IT Consulting in Brisbane, Australia.

Blog: Risk Management in Agile Initiatives

June 18, 2019

The principles of risk management play a pivotal role in the project management framework. While the principles of project management do not specifically recommend waterfall approach, some agile practitioners incorrectly disassociate from the principles of project risk management in agile approaches to product development or project management.

Webinar #Recap: 4 Key Elements of Inflectra's New Spira 6.0

May 24, 2019

On May 16, Inflectra hosted a webinar: 4 Key Elements of Inflectra's New Spira 6.0 to introduce the latest enhancements to the SpiraTest, SpiraPlan and SpiraTeam to its loyal customers as well as other interested parties. 

Some of you may have missed the webinar. that is why we are sharing the recording with you. 

Blog: Five Essentials To Requirements Management

February 28, 2019

The blog is produced in conjunction with Journey Into Agile With Inflectra - A Free Webinar Course.

The corporate business practices have evolved significantly. The products we develop are getting more complex and sophisticated. No longer are the software always having a graphical user interface for users, as wearable technologies and surgical implants transmitting updates to a mobile app are becoming commonplace. These emerging products, applications, and services will require identifying, gathering, and grooming requirements critical aspects of project management and product development.

Spotlight on SpiraPlan 6.0 - Enterprise Risk Management

February 5, 2019

As we're in the final countdown for the release of the latest version of SpiraPlan v6.0, we are going to be highlighting some of the most important new features in this version to help you get ready for the release. In this third installment of the blog series on the new version we'll be discussing the new enterprise risk management features, including support for risks, mitigations, tasks and risk cubes.

Webinar Recap: 5 Principles to Managing Your Application Lifecycle with SpiraTeam®

January 31, 2019

On January 24, 2019, Inflectra and #SriramRajagopalan offered to a group of aspiring agilists a webinar on Five Principles to Managing Your Application Lifecycle with SpiraTeam®. The webinar is part of Inflectra's certificate course called: Journey Into Agile With Inflectra - A Free Webinar Course.

If you missed the webinar, we understand - and are happy to share with you the most important take aways from the webinar.

Spotlight on Spira 6.0 - Document Management Workflows

January 28, 2019

As we're in the final countdown for the release of the latest version of SpiraTest, SpiraTeam and SpiraPlan v6.0, we are going to be highlighting some of the most important new features in this version to help you get ready for the release. In the second installment of the blog series on the new version we'll be discussing the new document management features, including workflows, and check-in / check-out functionality.

STAGE: The 5 Principles Of Application Life-Cycle Management

January 25, 2019

The blog is produced in conjunction with Journey Into Agile With Inflectra - A Free Webinar Course.

Often, when people hear about application lifecycle management, they interpret the terminology with things they know. Project Managers or Scrum Masters will think of the current scope of the project or the specific iteration/release that has a known scope and relatively short duration. Business Analysts, Product Managers, and Product Owners think of the product lifecycle management that has an uncertain scope and unclearly long duration. Architects, Designers, Developers, and Testers focus on software development lifecycle. Operations, Service Delivery, Program Managers and Portfolio Managers think of the deployment considerations, release documentation, and benefits realization.

Product Management versus Project Management

December 24, 2018

As I was concluding a capstone class on project management, there was a question from a few students on whether there is any scope of career growth for project management as a profession with the increased focus on agile principles. Questioning further on the root cause of this concern was the fact that agile approaches, such as Scrum, does not call for a project manager role and the focus is only on product management. In a brief attempt to address this ongoing confusions thinking product and project management are mutually exclusive disciplines with product management slaying the project management field, I explain here the ongoing need for the symbiotic relationship between these two disciplines.

Why Executives Need to Understand Program & Project Management?

December 17, 2018

As a firm believer in continuous improvement, I have always been monitoring the external environment to find new trends and equip myself with this knowledge. One of these interests was understanding more about Program and Portfolio Management.

Preventing Scope Creep, Grope and Leap from Killing Your Projects!

December 11, 2018

One of the major reasons that software projects are cancelled, fail to deliver the expected value or experience massive cost / budget overruns is due to a failure to grasp the risk and issues associated with managing the scope. This article describes the three most common types of scope management failure with suggestions of how to avoid such a fate.

Which test management tools provide integration with Selenium & CI tools?

September 5, 2018

Someone on Quora asked the question - "Which test management tools provide integration with Selenium & CI tools?". When I read this question, it was interesting, as we do get this question quite a lot, and the answer does depend a lot on which flavor of Selenium your are talking about, and which CI tools in particular you want to use.

Does Robust Test Data add Value to SpiraTest and Rapise?

July 18, 2018

Would you like to have a realistic, full production-like data set available in your test management suite? Having all the exceptions, pollution and human or system made data entry errors available before an application or release goes life is a major quality assurance advantage. Just read the news and learn about some of the recent IT failures due to data migration or testing without a realistic set of sample data.

Imagine the reduction of the amount of rework when you have a professional test data solution directly available in SpiraTest and in your test and acceptance environments. Moreover, adding realistic automated test data to Rapise would rapidly increase the value & quality of your data-driven automated regression testing.

Extend Your Project Management Strategy Beyond The Dev Team

July 5, 2018

When it comes to project management strategies, most people think of development teams.
Whether they’re focused software, websites, inventory, or any number of items, the intricacies of successfully developing a viable product require stringent tracking. There are many phases between brainstorming and product launch, most of which generally consist of numerous smaller tasks, which can be broken down into several more specific tasks. With so many hands in the honey pot, disorganization quickly leads to sticky situations.

This post, however, is not about development teams. It’s about introducing project management to the rest of your company to help clear up and prevent sticky situations.

Moving from Subversion to Git

March 13, 2018

Late last year we decided to migrate our core applications - SpiraTeam, KronoDesk and Rapise - from our legacy on-premise Subversion server (that we had been using since 2007) to our own cloud hosted TaraVault service. We realized we should always be using the same services as our customers, commonly known in the industry as "eating your own dogfood". If we didn't like something in TaraVault, we would be motivated to change it!

What's New in SpiraTest v5.4 - The Number One Test Management System

January 29, 2018

We shall be releasing the latest update of our powerful, award-winning test management system - SpiraTest in a few weeks, so we thought it would be good to highlight some of the new features coming your way.

Spotlight on SpiraPlan 5.4 - Program View of Releases & Incidents

January 23, 2018

As we're in the final countdown for the release of the latest version of SpiraTest, SpiraTeam and SpiraPlan v5.4, we are going to be highlighting some of the most important new features in this version to help you get ready for the release. Last week we discussed the new graphs and charts, so this time we shall be illustrating the new program management features in SpiraPlan v5.4. In addition, this is the first release of the new SpiraPlan that we discussed in December, it has all of the functionality of SpiraTeam, but in addition has the new program planning features.

Changes to the Spira Product Family in 2018 - The New SpiraPlan

December 15, 2017

We have some big news to share for 2018!

Based on extensive feedback and discussions with our customers during the user summits and consultations with our partners, we are making some changes to our product lineup next year. The big news is that we will be retiring our existing "SpiraPlan" feature set, and launching a new SpiraPlan edition of our Spira ALM platform that will cater to the needs of programs, portfolios, and enterprises.

Migrating from Legacy Test Management Tools Such as TestRail to SpiraTest

December 6, 2017

We always want to make things easy for our customers, and many of our recent customers have been looking to move to SpiraTest for their test management because they are excited about the new exploratory testing features, easy to use drag-and-drop user interface, integrated requirements management, and the powerful reporting and analytics. They are also concerned that their old legacy test management tool will no longer be supported or developed due to a recent company acquisition (TestRail by IDERA, HPE by Micro Focus, etc.). So to augment our line up of migration tools that we already have for HP ALM, Microsoft Test Manager, Excel, Word and Google Sheets, we have added a  new migration tool to streamline switching from TestRail to SpiraTest.

Recording of Agile Project Management Webinar using SpiraPlan

July 21, 2017

Many of our customers choose SpiraPlan or SpiraTeam because they are using agile methodologies such as Scrum or Kanban and need a powerful tool to manage their project backlogs, releases, sprints, iterations and programs. They are often using different tools for planning, bug tracking and requirements which hampers the ability to see the status of their project in one place.

Recording of SpiraTest Introductory Webinar

July 7, 2017

Many of our customers choose SpiraTest because they are tired of using manual paper-based methods such as Microsoft Excel or Word. They want to be able to more easily manage their testing, record test results and see in real-time the progress and status of their testing activities.

Preview of SpiraTest v5.2 - Testing Enhancements

April 24, 2017

We're very excited about the next version of SpiraTest (also SpiraPlan and SpiraTeam) coming out on April 26th. It includes a set of enhancements to the test management functionality that were a favorite of our testers at the recent user summits in Europe. In this article, we'd like to highlight three of these popular changes: 

Read more on how these upgrades to SpiraTest will make your life as a test manager much easier! 

Going the Extra Mile with SpiraTest v5.2

March 15, 2017

Over the years, we have received countless requests to introduce a feature allowing users to "hand-off" a test run that is already in progress from one tester to another. This lets person A do some testing and then dynamically hand it over to person B who can finish off the test run. In the current version (5.1) you have to start a new test execution. Well now.... despite us telling customers that this feature would probably not be included in Spiratest v5.2, we have some good news and some better news:

Management Debt: The Costs of Non-delivery and Non-conformance

February 7, 2017

The principles of lean have always focused on maximizing the value delivery. In fact, the Japanese term Muda (Arnheiter & Maleyeff, 2005) refers to the seven different types of wastes that one should remove. In this guest post from our agile transformation partner Sriram Rajagopalan, we discuss the types of waste that can be eliminated using a Lean methodology, and the role of Management Debt in perpetuating wasteful practices.

Inflectra Gives Back! Agile Training Champion at Your Service

February 1, 2017

As part of Inflectra’s commitment to corporate social responsibility, we are developing fresh and innovative approaches to giving back to our global user community as well as to our local community in DC metropolitan area.  

Along with our internship program, announced in January 2017, Inflectra is expanding its training capabilities in order to offer our fans an array of virtual resources to meet their software development needs. Furthermore, while our users are spread widely across the world, we, at Inflectra, see a great value in forging North to South cooperation and skills-transfer to build our follower base in the global South. In an increasingly globalized world, we are using multiple social media channels to reach and engage tech-savvy youth of various backgrounds everywhere.

Enterprise Lifecycle Management - From ALM to ELM

August 30, 2016

The disciplines of PLM and ALM are increasingly entwined together with the rise of smart consumer devices as well as Internet-enabled industrial systems. Managers need to be able to plan their entire lifecycle, both products and applications. We see a convergence into “Enterprise Lifecycle Management” or ELM in the same way that Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Accounting converged into ERP.

Reflections of the Diversity of Testing in NYC

April 28, 2016

We had the privilege of attending the first Test Masters Academy Conference in NYC this week. The focus of the event was on Test Management Agility, with speakers providing insights from companies as diverse as Johnson&Johnson and Spotify. We thought it would be interesting to recant some of our key takeaways from the event.

To Diagram or Not to Diagram?

February 5, 2016

Some people think in fully-formed and eloquent prose (like Supreme Court Justices). The rest of us either think in shorter-form lists and phrases, or visually with pictures. We want to know if our users would benefit from richer integration and use of visual tools and diagrams in SpiraTeam.

Spira 5.0 - Releases that Roll Up

November 25, 2015

We often think of a release as a simple idea, you have a new version (say 1.0) of a product and you plan on releasing it on a specific date. You might then divide up that release into either iterations or sprints if you're using an agile approach or perhaps phases if using a waterfall one. You then want to be able to report at the project, release and iteration level. Well after much feedback from customers, we found that customers need more than that...

One Throat to Choke - Why We Only Allow One Owner

August 11, 2015

People often email us to ask if it is possible to have more than one owner in SpiraTeam when assigning a requirement, test case, incident or task. They also often ask us why we named the field 'owner' rather than 'assignee'. Well these two decisions were actually thoughtfully made and not just at random.

Can Use Cases Replace User Stories?

May 20, 2015

User Stories are often characterized by relatively short, uncomplicated and informal descriptions, whereas Use Cases are often longer, more formally structured descriptions of not only the user need but also other details. Can Use Cases strike a balance between the need for agility and the need for more information, and if so, how? Read More

Beyond the Document Paradigm – part 3

May 13, 2015

In this conclusion we shall see that migration to a test management or requirements management tool can be easier than it might seem initially. Read More

Testing Tool Interview: SpiraTest (QA TestingTools.Com)

May 12, 2015

Finding the best test management solution for your needs can be a tough task for organizations at times. With a variety of tools heading neck-to-neck in the market, a Quality and Test Management software to support your quality assurance, application security, and performance validation can lead to a lot of confusion. Read More

Beyond the Document Paradigm – part 2

May 7, 2015

When making the transition from document-oriented information storage to record-oriented information management tools, there are a number of problems which can make the process difficult, or even unsuccessful. This second part of our series explains how such pitfalls can occur. Read More

Beyond the Document Paradigm – Part 1

May 5, 2015

Have you ever tried to write a letter in a spreadsheet? Ridiculous idea, right? Or perhaps you’ve tried to do the opposite and store discrete, record-oriented information in a word processor? It can be done using tables, but it’s easier with a spreadsheet. Read More

Agile Myths - Part 3

September 9, 2014

In this item we continue our examination of various Agile methodology ideas and ask whether they are valid or whether they are in fact, industry myths. Read More

Tips for Effective Requirements Management

September 4, 2014

It is a month till release, and the CEO comes out of the office and says we need a new feature for the release. A week later he modifies the new feature. The developer works hard to please him and delivers, but he doesn't like it. The requirement changes again and now we are a few days from release. how are we going to debug, test, and verify for release if things keep changing? Read More

Is Agile Product Management Dead?

July 8, 2014

The Product Manager role (unlike that of the project manager) is arguably the least well understood of all the software project development disciplines and varies greatly in definition and implementation from one organization to another. This blog discusses how the role of the product manager has been changed by the move to agile methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban. Read More

How to Choose a Test Management Tool

June 4, 2014

While it might seem that the most important consideration when choosing a test management software tool is the set of basic tool features supporting the test process itself, you should not neglect a wide range of other questions that could make or break your test management tool choice. This whitepaper identifies the key attributes you should look for in a test management solution. Read More

The Software Chicken and the Egg

April 16, 2014

For a considerable period of time, we did well organized testing, but not against requirements that were formally defined.
Why was it deemed necessary to automate the test management process before there were any decent tools for recording exactly what we were testing for? Read More

Documenting Requirements in Agile Projects

April 1, 2014

(aka The Changing Role of the Modern Father)

One of the difficulties of moving from waterfall to an Agile development process is the breaking down of silos of responsibility, including that of the product owner. No longer the deliverer of the requirements 'master-specification', the product owner now participates throughout the entire process, sharing the requirements management task and taking on new, varied and, sometimes unexpected, responsibilities.

Principles of Requirements Engineering (or Requirements 101)

March 11, 2014

Requirements Engineering (RE) is often trivialized as an activity performed by well meaning analysts before they start doing the real work of specifying a product. This whitepaper introduces the critical processes and procedures used when executing effective Requirements Engineering as part of an overall successful project. Read More

10 Questions You Should Ask When Choosing a Tool for Requirements Management

February 24, 2014

If you are looking for a requirements management tool, you probably don't need to be told how important requirements management is. There are a number of standard questions to be asked when selecting any software product for your organization. Read More