Spotlight on Spira 7.5 - Multiple Requirement Approvers

February 27, 2023

We are excited about the upcoming release of Spira v7.5!

The new version includes, amongst many other features, a brand new SpiraApp called Requirement Multiple Approvals. This new plugin for SpiraTeam and SpiraPlan (not SpiraTest, sorry) will allow you to conduct multiple parallel approvals of a requirement in the system. This much-awaiting feature has been asked for by many of our life sciences customers who need to be able to conduct parallel approvals of requirements.

Spotlight on Spira 7.5 - Customizable Requirement Statuses on Boards

February 21, 2023

We are excited to announce that, following on from the redesign of the main planning board in Spira, we have listened to your feedback around requirements' status. In our new version 7.5 release of Spira coming out shortly, we have changed how the requirements statuses work to give you greater flexibility and control on whether a status appears in the board, and crucially, the order they are displayed in.

Team Building - The Inflectra Way

November 28, 2022

Two of Inflectra's Core Values are Great Team and Great Workplace. As part of making these values a reality, we recently had our U.S. business development (sales, marketing, customer success, and partnerships) team come together for a two-day offsite in our headquarters. The purpose of the offsite was to make sure that our newest team members felt connected to the company, and also to discuss ways we can improve the customer experience in 2023.

Rapise 7.4 Spotlight: 64-Bit Support and Cross-Application Recording

October 26, 2022

We just recently released the latest version of our Rapise test automation solution, Rapise 7.4. This version has two main, marquee new features - support for HTML web components and the popular AG Grid. In addition, this new version has three other very important test automation enhancements: support for 64-bit desktop applications (both Java and .NET), streamlined cross-application recording, and support for the testing of embedded UI apps.

Webinar Recap: The Automation of Requirements

March 30, 2022

On March 29th, Inflectra and partner Orca Intelligence hosted a webinar focused on The Automation of Requirements: Save Time Planning, Creating, and Managing Requirements with Swiftly and SpiraTeam. In this webinar, we covered:

• Solicitation Response

  • Work in SpiraTeam to build out a scope for solicitation and generate an estimate in Swiftly

• Agile Project Planning 

  • Plan in detail with SpiraTeam and automatically generate details with Swiftly 

• Agile Delivery Lifecycle Management 

  • Generate detailed user stories with Swiftly and SpiraTeam

  • Manage user stories through SpiraTeam.

If you missed the webinar, we have a full recap below.

Reviewing the 25 Best DevOps Tools for Agile Projects in 2022

March 14, 2022

Ever since the Belgian consultant project manager and an agile practitioner, Patrick Debois, coined the term “DevOps” to resolve the conflict, “It is not my code; it’s your machines,” increasing the transparency of the integration and interaction between business and technical people, the DevOps framework has played a pivotal role in the end-to-end responsibility. Numerous tools have entered this 8-step framework bringing their unique expertise in specific areas, while others have played within the ecosystem touching more than one segment of this framework as part of the more extensive application lifecycle management.

Best Practices for Handling Acceptance Criteria

January 10, 2022

We had a customer ask us what was the recommended way to manage the Acceptance Criteria of requirements in a project. There are actually several different ways you can handle acceptance criteria depending on your exact process (and preference):

1. You can simply add a custom Rich Text Description textbox to the Requirement artifact. That will appear underneath the main description.
2. You can use a requirement of type Acceptance criteria and make it a 'Has Steps' type so that you could enter the acceptance checklist as steps.
3. You create a .Feature file in the documents section and link to the requirement. That way you get the automated Gherkin syntax highlighting.
4. You can use a test case of type Acceptance Criteria and use the test steps.

We discuss each of these options below:

Sneak Peek on 2022: GitLab Pipelines comes to Spira

December 13, 2021

As we start preparing for 2022, we will be providing some information on our plans for 2022, including some previews of planned functionality in our Spira and Rapise platforms. One of the key plans for 2022 is a closer integration of our Spira platform with GitLab. We already have source code repository and issue tracking integration, but the planned enhancements for 2022 include support for GitLab CI Pipelines.

Spotlight on Spira 6.13 - SAFe Support for Requirement Types

November 4, 2021

The upcoming release of our Spira platform includes a major change in how requirement types work, specifically when you have multiple levels of parent requirements and you want/need control over what the type is for those requirements. Previously, parent requirements were forced to be either Package (Spira versions 5.4 and earlier) or Epic (Spira versions 6.0 and later). Recognizing that we need more flexibility for different methodologies such as Scaled Agile (SAFe), Waterfall and Agile/Scrum/Kanban, we have completely revamped how this feature works.

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: 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: Building Quality Pipelines With SpiraPlan

February 10, 2021

On February 4, 2021, Coveros and Inflectra co-hosted a virtual meetup where the representatives of the two companies discussed various aspects of how to deliver quality through a DevSecOps pipeline. The event used Inflectra's enterprise-grade portfolio management platform - SpiraPlan to demonstrate the above. 

We hope you had a chance to join this fun event, which took place in a bespoke virtual environment! If you missed it, however, here is a full recap of the event! 

Recap: The Scrum Guide 2020

January 27, 2021

On January 21, 2021, Inflectra's Sriram Rajagopalan, Ph.D., led a discussion on the recent changes to the Scrum framework in a live event called: Scrum Guide 2020 - A Deep Dive. 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: 

• Understand the responsibilities of the Scrum Team
• Pivot on the goal of Scrum as a product management framework
• Explore the foundations of the Scrum Framework that remain unchanged
• Specific aspects requiring attention when implementing Scrum.

Spotlight on Spira 6.6 - Project Baselining Enhancements

August 7, 2020

One of the focus areas in the new release v6.6 of SpiraTeam and SpiraPlan is completing the initial support for baselining. This is an exciting new piece of functionality that makes SpiraTeam and SpiraPlan especially well suited for managing requirements, test cases and artifacts on more complex systems and engineering projects.

Spotlight on Spira 6.5.2 - Requirements and Test Case Baselining

July 6, 2020

One of the focus areas in the upcoming release v6.5.2 of SpiraTeam and SpiraPlan is support for baselining. This is an exciting new piece of functionality that will make SpiraTeam and SpiraPlan especially well suited for managing requirements, test cases and artifacts on more complex systems and engineering projects.

Webinar Recap: How To Test MS Dynamics Unified Service Desk Through The UI

June 26, 2020

On June 24th, 2020, Denis Markovtsev hosted the last live webinar in the MS Dynamics series called: How To Test MS Dynamics Unified Service Desk Through The UI Like A Pro. The webinar focused on the following learning objectives: 

• How to start testing Unified Service Desk with Rapise,
• How to launch Unified Service Desk from an automated test
• How to automate navigation within Unified Service Desk
• How to record a test case and make it a part of the framework for regular execution

If you missed the webinar, here are some of the highlights!

Webinar Recap: UI Automation 101: 5 Ways To Use Rapise Frameworks

June 16, 2020

On June 10, 2020, Inflectra and Alexey Grinevich, Ph.D. hosted the last webinar in the series called: UI Automation 101. In this webinar, Team Rapise focused on 5 Ways To Use Rapise Frameworks and discussed the following: 

• Rapise features relevant to the typical Test Framework process
• Different approaches to the test framework design
• The real-life examples of testing frameworks in Rapise.

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

Blog: What’s the Problem with User Stories?

June 3, 2020

We are happy to share a blog post by Inflectra’s Director of Technology -  Adam Sandman called What’s the Problem with User Stories? published on TechWell Insights website. The blog explores key challenges associated with relying solely on user stories for requirements’ definition.

Webinar Recap: 7 Little Known Ways To Leverage RVL

May 20, 2020

On May 13, 2020, Inflectra's automation champion - Alexey Grinevich, Ph.D. hosted a live webinar in the UI Automation 101 webinar series. This second webinar in the series explored the hows-to of leveraging Rapise Visual Language (RVL). 

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

Webinar Agenda:

The webinar covered the following areas: 

• How to use RVL for codeless scripts
• RVL's role in the maintenance
• RVL's role in designing testing frameworks.

Webinar Recap: How To Test MS Dynamics 365 for Sales Through The UI

May 4, 2020

On April 29th, 2020, our automation champion - Denis Markovtsev, Ph.D took us on a journey exploring the testing of MS Dynamics 365 for Sales Through the UI.  The webinar focusing on the following how-to's: 

• Start testing Dynamics 365 for Sales with Rapise
• Launch Dynamics 365 for Sales from an automated test
• Automate navigation within Dynamics 365 for Sales
• Record a test case and make it a part of the framework for regular execution.

If you missed the webinar, here 👇 are some of the highlights!

Webinar Recap: How To Test MS Dynamics AX through the UI Like A Pro

April 3, 2020

On April 1, 2020 Denis Markovtsev took us on a journey exploring the testing of MS Dynamics AX through the UI focusing on the following learning objectives: 

• understanding how to start testing Dynamics AX with Rapise,
• practicing launching Dynamics AX from an automated test
• automating the navigation within Dynamics AX
• learning how to record a test case and make it a part of the framework for regular execution. 

If you missed the webinar, here are some of the highlights!

Webinar Recap: UI Automation 101: Tables, Grids and Trees

March 23, 2020

On March 18, 2020, Inflectra's automation champion - Alexey Grinevich, Ph.D. hosted a live webinar in the UI Automation 101 webinar series. This second webinar in the series explored the hows-to of automating tables, grids and trees

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

Webinar Agenda:

The webinar covered the following areas: 

• Grids and Tables automation - APIs, recording, playback
• Trees automation - APIs, recording, playback
• Useful hints and tricks.

Webinar Recap: UI Automation 101: Working with Navigation & Menus

March 16, 2020

On February 19, 2020, Inflectra's automation champion - Alexey Grinevich, Ph.D. hosted the very first live webinar in the UI Automation 101 webinar series. This first webinar looked at ways of automating your navigation and menus. 

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

Webinar Agenda:

The webinar covered the following areas: 

• Overview of navigation methods
• Practical examples of navigation
• Useful tips and tricks.

Testing MS Dynamics Through The UI Like A Pro - A Webinar Series

March 4, 2020

On March 4th, 2020 Inflectra launched the 4th installment in its famous test automation webinar series series called: Testing MS Dynamics Through The UI Like A Pro. This step 4 webinar series builds on the earlier test automation series’: Test Automation, Demystified and Planet Test Automation: First Steps while also working in parallel with the current UI Automation 101 series.

Testing MS Dynamics Through The UI Like A Pro series aims to help you launch the testing of your MS Dynamics product. We will look at the following how-to's: bootstrap a testing framework and perform essential test automation tasks and organize your teamwork and create tests that are easy to enhance and maintain.

Details are inside!

UI Automation 101 - A Webinar Series

March 2, 2020

On February 19th, 2020 Inflectra launched the 3rd installment in its famous test automation webinar series series called: UI Automation 101. This step 3 webinar series builds on the earlier test automation series’ - Test Automation, Demystified and - Planet Test Automation: First Steps. This series aims to strengthen participants' grasp of the major test automation activities and learn the essentials of Test Automation. 

Details are inside!

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.

Webinar Recap: Automating MOBILE UI Testing

November 25, 2019

On November 20, 2019 Inflectra hosted the 3rd live webinar: Automating Mobile UI Testing from the Tier 2 Certification series called: Planet Test Automation: First Steps

If you missed the webinar, we are happy to share this recap👇 with you!

Webinar Recap: Automating Desktop UI Testing (Part 2)

November 5, 2019

On October 30, 2019 Inflectra hosted the 2nd live webinar: Automating Desktop UI Testing from the Tier 2 Certification series called: Planet Test Automation: First Steps

If you missed the webinar, we are happy to share this recap👇 with you!

Seamless Migration from Micro Focus UFT to Rapise (Part 2)

November 4, 2019

Many organizations are looking to update their software testing processes and tools, with an industry-wide move away from some of the older, monolithic legacy suites from vendors such as Micro Focus (formerly HP, and Mercury Interactive before that) to more modern tools. This second article in the blog series, provides a deeper insight into the new UFT migration and conversion framework that has been developed by Inflectra to help our customers more easily migrate from UFT to Rapise.

Seamless Migration from Micro Focus UFT to Rapise (Part 1)

October 31, 2019

Many organizations are looking to update their software testing processes and tools, with an industry-wide move away from some of the older, monolithic legacy suites from vendors such as Micro Focus (formerly HP, and Mercury Interactive before that) to more modern tools. At Inflectra, we have partnered with Neotys to provide an integrated suite comprising: SpiraTeam, Rapise and NeoLoad that lets companies have test management, functional testing, and load testing all in one. Migrating from ALM/QualityCenter to SpiraTeam is easy using our free migration tool, and migration from LoadRunner to NeoLoad was possible using a conversion utility, however automatically converting from UFT / QTP to Rapise was not so easy.... until today!

Webinar Recap: Automating Web UI Testing

October 18, 2019

On October 16, 2019 Inflectra hosted the 1st live webinar: Automating Web UI Testing from the Tier 2 Certification series called: Planet Test Automation: First Steps

If you missed the webinar, here is a recap👇 ~ enjoy!

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.

Webinar #Recap: Is Application Ready for Test Automation?

June 5, 2019

Inflectra recently hosted a webinar called: Is Application Ready for Test Automation?, as part of webinar series called: Test Automation, Demystified. The goal of series is to build the participants’ basic understanding, and a skill set to start using test automation in their work.

We are sharing the most important take-aways from the webinar.

Webinar Recap: The Top Alternative To Micro Focus QA Suite

March 4, 2019

We have recently hosted a webinar on The Top Alternative To Micro Focus QA Suite. If you missed the webinar, please enjoy the recap in this blog.

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.

Webinar Recap: Five Essentials to Managing Your Requirements with SpiraTeam®

February 28, 2019

On February 21, 2019, Inflectra and #SriramRajagopalan hosted a webinar on Five Essentials to Managing Your Requirements with SpiraTeam®. This is the 3rd webinar in the certificate series called: Journey Into Agile With Inflectra - A Free Webinar Course.

If you missed the webinar, please enjoy the recap in this blog.

Journey Into Agile With Inflectra - A Free Webinar Course

January 2, 2019

Inflectra and  #sriramrajagopalan are teaming up to bring you a free five-part online training course on agile project lifecycle management called: Journey Into Agile With Inflectra.

We've Built an AI-Powered Robot for Salesforce with Rapise - A Webinar Recap

December 17, 2018

Our last free webinar of 2018 had an ambitious goal: to use Rapise to build an AI-powered robot that can mine Salesforce contacts from email signatures. The presenter was Inflectra's senior automation architect - Denis Markovtsev who showed us how to design a robot that can read emails from Exchange mailbox, send emails to a third-party Machine Learning powered REST service for contact extraction, and how to create new contacts in Salesforce via the UI.

Some of you may have missed the webinar, so we made a recording for you, which is enclosed.

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.

Bulk Import of Requirements Test Step Traceability for Mission Systems

October 18, 2018

One of the unique needs when designing and developing mission systems for the defense industry, is the fact that you need to be able to trace system requirements to individual test steps in a test case. Based on this advice we received from industry subject matter experts, we added support in SpiraTeam v5 for this feature. However one limitation was that the data migration tools we have for loading data from Excel into SpiraTeam don't let you add requirement - test step links in bulk... until today.

How to Wreck Your UI Test Automation Project - A Cheat Sheet

September 4, 2018

A while back we wrote about how to make a UI test automation project a nightmare, well in the second part of this blog series, we explore some ways you can wreck and derail an automation project. Hopefully, you will do the opposite and become a test automation hero!

Introducing the Web UI Test Automation Playground

August 7, 2018

We have all seen slick demos of automated testing tools and frameworks. They show how you can quickly automate a nice, well constructed login page. The test records easily, the playback is seamless and it all looks so easy and painless. Then you purchase the tool and when it makes first contact with a real application, it looks as seamless as a Rube Goldberg machine!

Using REST & UI Testing To Test An Ajax Web Application - Webinar Recording

July 20, 2018

We are please to share with you the recording of our recent webinar on Using REST & UI Testing To Test An Ajax Web Application. 

The webinar is based on a talk by Adam Sandman, first presented at STPCon Spring 2018. 

Webinar Recap: Addressing The Challenges Of Web UI Test Automation Using Rapise

July 16, 2018

Thank you for joining our July 5th webinar on Addressing The Challenges Of Web UI Test Automation Using Rapise. The webinar recording and slides are offered below for those who had to miss it. 

Recording of Testing Salesforce Lightning with Rapise Webinar

February 14, 2018

Rapise is the most powerful and easy to use software testing tool on the market for testing Salesforce.com. We have many customers and partners using Rapise to streamline their testing of Salesforce.com, cutting down the time to test every new patch, update, or customization. We recently had a webinar that demonstrated the best practices and tips and tricks for testing Salesforce's new Lightning Edition. Don't worry if you missed the webinar, we have a recording available.

Recording of Testing Dynamics NAV with Rapise Webinar

January 25, 2018

Rapise is the most powerful and easy to use software testing tool on the market for testing Microsoft Dynamics NAV. We have many customers and partners using Rapise to streamline their testing of Dynamics products, cutting down the time to test every new patch, update, or customization. We recently had a webinar that demonstrated the best practices and tips and tricks for testing Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Don't worry if you missed the webinar, we have a recording available.

How to Make UI Test Automation a Nightmare - A Developer's Guide

December 19, 2017

We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.
― Richard Feynman

There are many ways in which you can make the lives of test automation teams harder. If you are a developer or system architect and one of testers is the kind of guy you dislike, this article is for you. Enlightened by the sacred knowledge contained in this short article you will learn how to make UI of any application nearly untestable.

Alternatively, if you are a kinder soul and respect others' hard work, you may consider topics presented herewith as anti-patterns.

So, let's go.

Recording of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM / 365 for Sales Webinar

December 19, 2017

Rapise is the most powerful and easy to use software testing tool on the market for testing Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales. We have many customers and partners using Rapise to streamline their testing of Dynamics products, cutting down the time to test every new patch, update, or customization. We recently had a webinar that demonstrated the best practices and tips and tricks for testing Dynamics CRM and Dynamics 365. Don't worry if you missed the webinar, we have a recording available.

Recording of Testing Salesforce.com with Rapise Webinar

December 1, 2017

Rapise is the most powerful and easy to use software testing tool on the market for testing Salesforce.com. We have many customers and partners using Rapise to streamline their testing of Salesforce.com, cutting down the time to test every new patch, update, or customization. We recently had a webinar that demonstrated the best practices and tips and tricks for testing Salesforce.com. Don't worry if you missed the webinar, we have a recording available.

Recording of Testing Dynamics AX 2012 with Rapise Webinar

November 28, 2017

Rapise is the most powerful and easy to use software testing tool on the market for testing Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. We have many customers and partners using Rapise to streamline their testing of Dynamics AX, cutting down the time to test every new patch, update, or customization. We recently had a webinar that demonstrated the best practices and tips and tricks for testing Dynamics AX. Don't worry if you missed the webinar, we have a recording available.

Spotlight on Rapise 5.3: Testing Dynamics NAV Applications

September 5, 2017

As you may know, one of the core strengths of Rapise is its support for testing Microsoft Dynamics applications. Rapise offers the best automated testing solution on the market for Microsoft Dynamics AX, CRM and 365. However that is not sufficient for us, after several customer requests, we are pleased to announce that the next version of Rapise due for release in a couple of weeks will also include built-in out of the box support for MS Dynamics NAV as well.

The Top 3 Tools In Automated UI Testing for Dynamics AX

August 7, 2017

Ever wonder which automated UI testing software to use for Dynamics AX ?

We have a review that compares the three top tools on the market: Visual Studio Coded UI, Rapise and AXeptance. Read how each of them fair when tested against the following five criteria:

1. functionality
2. ease of use & maintenance
3. date-driven testing
4. reliability
5. speed

#TechTuesday: Resilient UI Test Automation for Web Applications

June 20, 2017

Web applications are a perfect example of a rapidly moving target for UI test automation tools. Agile and DevOps drive small changes and frequent releases. This leads to certain challenges in QA field. How to create tests that survive after small UI changes? How to create tests that produce same results if ran 10 times in a row on an unmodified application? How to create tests that check exactly those features they were designed to check?

Answers to these questions are not entirely simple. Test automation is still an art.

In this blog we try to figure out what every test automation engineer can do to find the right answers. First I'll give a few examples that illustrate common challenges in Web UI test automation.

#TechTuesday: Automated Testing of Complex Web UI Components: Behind The Scenes

June 14, 2017

Take any tool for UI test automation and you will notice that they always lack support for some of the UI controls. And I am not talking about trivial ones like buttons and edit boxes, but the one that are custom controls, which are unique and created for specific needs. It can be some sophisticated grid or menu or a fancy tree. A number of such controls in this rapidly evolving world is growing exponentially. So, every UI test automation engineer is challenged by emerging UI frameworks in every project. This is especially true for Web applications.

As a provider of a UI test automation tool - Rapise - we constantly do our best to arm engineers with the most advanced technologies to help them deal with new UI controls.

This article by Danis Markovtsev will showcase a real-life example of this. 

Unlock The Secrets of SpiraTeam v5.1!

December 12, 2016

Spira v5.1 is now out! This blog gives you some insight into the release and discusses our accelerated release strategy going forward.

Why is GUI Testing Important?

October 11, 2016

In an ideal world, the presentation layer would be very simple and with sufficient unit tests and other code-level tests (e.g. API testing if there are external application program interfaces (APIs)) you would have complete code coverage by just testing the business and data layers. Unfortunately, reality is never quite that simple and you often will need to test the Graphic User Interface (GUI) to cover all of the functionality and have complete test coverage.

And Then There Was One - Micro Focus Acquires HPE Software Assets

September 9, 2016

When we first started the company, back in 2006 we had many legacy competitors offering integrated requirements, test and defect tracking systems. However as the years have rolled on and with the rise of more nimble competitors, it seems that they have been gobbled up, most recently HP ALM by Micro Focus!

The Value of Continuity - Or Why We Develop In-House

December 31, 2015

Like most software companies, every day we get several emails from various IT service companies offering us low-cost developers and testers to help us with the development and testing of our products. Every day we put these emails in the trash folder. So why have we always built our products in-house? Are we foolish? Are we myopic?

Revamping the Rapise User Interface

November 30, 2015

In accordance with the theme this month of user interface updates and user experience in general, we'd like to talk about some of the UI changes being made to our Rapise test automation product. These changes are based on the results of user testing and feedback from our customers. It's an interesting topic because it shows the dramatic impact the UI can have on an application.

Are You Testing in the Right Direction?

October 29, 2015

20 Tips for Effective Requirements Elicitation

July 3, 2015

Requirements Elicitation is the act of teasing the true needs from users and other stakeholders, including most departments in the development organization such as sales and training. Elicitation is not simply gathering: gathering is a passive action, whereas elicitation is proactive. This article provides some tips on how to best elicit them. Read More

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

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

User Story Testability

March 5, 2015

The language used to define user stories in Agile projects tends to be less prescriptive than that in traditional projects. This means that many developers and testers assume that this means that they are often less testable, when in fact the reverse is true. This article explains why. 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

Agile Myths - Part 2

September 2, 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

Agile Myths - Part 1

August 19, 2014

The enthusiasm these days for Agile development is rightly deserved, but with so much being written and said about Agile development, there should be room for healthy debate. While Agile development has proven to be a huge step forward and the right approach for many projects, it is important to continue to ask questions in order that we don’t start to endorse the bad along with the good. We don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but we can’t keep the bathwater just to avoid the risk of doing so. An occasional examination of principles being promoted and used within the industry helps to maintain Agile methods as the best alternative to traditional development practices for many projects.

In this series of blog postings we shall discuss some of the characteristics of various Agile methodologies and ask whether the ideas are valid or whether they are in fact, industry myths.

Requirements Sign-Off

August 12, 2014

SpiraTeam v4.1 introduced a new feature allowing you to create requirement workflows. This feature allows you to create a workflow that models your signoff process. The question that begs is - what should my requirements signoff process look like...

Is There Such a Thing as Extreme Agile Programming?

July 21, 2014

Extreme Programming (XP) is one of the more popular Agile Development methodologies, and for very good reason. It advocates short, rapid iterations, constant customer contribution and frequent testing. But let us consider the foundation of Extreme Programming, which is to identify all the positive aspects of software programming techniques and take them to their extreme; the idea being that you can’t have too much of a good thing. For example, if tests help find defects, why not test all the time?

If we consider Agile methods generally, (not XP specifically) to also be a combination of good ideas, XP would tell us to take those ideas to their extreme; could we do that and create “Extreme Agile Programming (EAP)”? Or would we be trying to swallow our own tail? Let’s consider some Agile principles and find out.

The Defect-Requirements-Test Triangle

July 15, 2014

It is quite a popular notion that there should be formally recorded associations or links between defects and software code configuration items. This can explain why a piece of code has later been modified and also helps individuals find their way back to the ‘fix’ should the defect be found to still exist upon re-testing. But there are other ways to achieve this and so the question is: can the relationship between the defect and the code really be the most important one? 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

What is a Software Defect?

May 2, 2014

I doubt most people would struggle to answer the question, “What is a defect?” After all, we know what a defect looks like when we come across it, don’t we? “The system has encountered an unexpected error and must shut down,” is a message that leaves us in no doubt that there must be a defect in there somewhere. But knowing a defect when we see one is very different from being able to define what ‘defect’ actually means. 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

Agile Techniques in Maintenance Environments

March 4, 2014

I'd like to address the question, 'Can Agile techniques be used in maintenance environments?' The short answer is, 'yes', and the long answer is, 'yes, sort of.' The reality of the situation is far more nuanced than either of those answers, so let's look at the issues in more detail. I don't intend to make this a comprehensive review, but just brief look at some of the issues to get us going. 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

Losing Data Wasn't One of the Requirements....? Oops!

February 11, 2014

Library users who spent many hours, perhaps over many years, saving their favorite titles for future reading enjoyment, suddenly found that after the upgrade of the Washington, DC library catalog system, all their favorites were gone. Vanished. Not a trace!