Inflectra SpiraTest Reviews

Fully featured test management tool:

• Enterprise license gives unlimited users
• Full artefact traceability is fantastic - requirements to test cases to execution to defects/reporting
• Customisability and product support

SpiraTest was initially implemented for our largest IT project at Amec Foster Wheeler (Implementation of Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009/2012). Prior to SpiraTest, spreadsheets were being used to control test collateral. Bringing SpiraTest in, provided immediate benefits in the area of test visibility, reporting capabilities, audibility and overall clarity of the testing effort.

Whilst the tool was fantastic there were some areas which were not as user friendly as they could have been. The biggest complaint was the folder structure/functionality. We found that a number of our users struggled to create or move test scripts into the correct locations. This extended out to test sets and requirements. As most users are accustomed to Windows XP/7 environments, a similar method of managing the testing hierarchy would have been a much more preferable solution.

The best part of two and a half years.

One of the main issues encountered was around scalability. Initially there were between 30 to 50 accounts set up, however this quickly began to grow (as projects were being migrated in). We noticed a steady increase in the number of time-outs experienced by end users. Speaking with Inflectra support this was a known issue, and could be resolved by re-indexing the SpiraTest DB. We started off running the re-indexing scripts ad-hoc/as required. However, it got to the stage where the script would be required at least once a week. There was never really a clean solution to the issue.

The customer support was fantastic. Inflectra were always able to provide excellent guidance and resolution to most issues/technical questions asked - where they were unable to provide details at the time, a response would always be issued within a day. This is especially true when we were upgrading from 4.0 to 4.2 - we experienced some technical difficulties with tables being dropped but not recreated. Inflectra provided telephone assistance and we were able to set up a meeting the same day. A route cause was determined the same day and resolved the next day (nb: there were db locks created by other services that had not closed preventing the installation process creating the required db).

Spreadsheets were being used prior to SpiraTest.

The set up/installation was straightforward, but required assistance from the System Admins with regards to kit being available. We eventually moved to a virtualised environment - the transition was carried out by the system administration team and was also a smooth process (SpiraTest fully supports virtualisation).

We implemented the tool in- house. Tthe main advice is to ensure the appropriate backup & recovery process is well defined. We were able to slot SpiraTest backup in with the normal weekly backup cycle. This is extremely important for most tools and especially so for a test management tool.

This information would need to be provided by my manager at the time but to give an indication - prior to SpiraTest we were testing and reporting through spreadsheets. Reporting itself was taking between an hour and two hours per day for a designated resource. Extrapolated out, this immediately becomes a silly number of hours wasted putting a report together. Once the tool was implemented, and real-time reporting was possibly, we no longer needed to waste two hours of test resources to pull together the report. This is a simply case but given that the tool cost £7,000 only, the cost savings were huge.

The tool cost £7,000.

Before any implementation of a tool comes a requirement for said tool. The first step is to analyse your requirements and current process and understand the current pros/cons and the overall costs. If your processes are robust, and there are no alarming pitfalls, then there may not be a need to make any changes. However, if you find there to be many holes in the current processes then there may be a need to make a change. We carried out an assessment on many test management tools (including HP QC) but it was immediately obvious with regards ROI that SpiraTest was right for our needs.

If you are looking for a fully featured test management tool (or going further, an ALM solution) either in house or SAAS and are looking for the best bang for buck then I can recommend SpiraTest without a shadow of a doubt.

Defect tracking.

It has created paper trail, and an audit history with detailed information on where the defect is currently from, what environment it is in, and whether it is being worked on, and if so, who by.

Some of the reporting can be limited. The test cases and test sets portion has its limitations and can be cumbersome when changes are needed to test scenarios. Also, the search for test cases can be time consuming and creating test sets from the cases can be hard if there are many Test Cases loaded. It would be nice to have a better search functionality within the Testing area.

I've used it for about three and a half years.

Some of the deployments have caused issues with browsers. Also, the loading of screenshots used to work without having to save it to ones desktop. This will now give an error.

6/10 – they do get back to you sometimes with helpful information.

It was pretty straightforward. The documentation does need to be updated as it seemed it was old screenshots it was displaying at the time.

This was implemented in–house.

From what I understand, this is one of the cheapest versions that offered what we needed at the time, but I believe we will be moving onto another product that will interact with our other tools.

This is good for defect tracking. I was not that impressed with the test case creation, but it did give good metrics of number of completion, not completed, on hold or defects.

The most valuable thing is that it's a test management system, in which you can handle a mass of test case specifications and executions.

It has not probably improved anything. It is just generic test management which has quite a small price tag. Of course it has provided us way to handle our test specifications.

The tool doesn't restrict the usage, so if an organization wants to plan a lot they can, so this tool is good in that sense.

It's low score is mainly because of the problems with the user interface, usability and lack of user guidance - meaning that tool has no predefined way of work.

I would like to see improvement in handling test way of work. The current version does not provide enough support for test management way of work. You have too much to plan by yourself. For example, the linkage between artefacts is hard without planning and guidance for end users. The UI has it's limitations and current folder system is hard to manage. User right handling is hard because you need to grand too much rights to the users.

I have used it about three years. I have been the main user of the product and planning how the tool should be used.

Scalability wise, it needs hardware resources. Only Microsoft IIS is supported, and it's not a Linux based solution. We had to give more resources because it was stuck with lots of users.

Support has been good so far.

Setup is pretty easy but the user guidance for the end users is complicated.

We used an in-house implementations. I advise to plan a lot about the process itself, because the tool does not support that one very well. Also, the report functions are useless without good data consistency.

The price tag is be quite cheap I guess so in that sense it is one alternative. However, a lot of time goes into handling the test objects in the tool

Plan beforehand how the team shoudl use the tool. In that sense there are better solutions available

Apart from bugs reporting and tracking, which are obvious features for test management tool, these are the important features:

• Simplicity and usability - SpiraTest is very intuitive and easy to learn
• Integration with other tools - I was integrating SpiraTest not only with Inflectra's Rapise, but also with MS TFS. I found the procedures straight forward, intuitive, logical and fairly easy to maintain. Spira Test has plugins for a number of tools.
• Reporting - Flexible reporting feature made managers' life much easier. XML based templates, easy to tailor to user's needs were really helpful in providing up to date feedback of projects progress.

We came from Excel and mindmaps to using the professional management tool, thus there were plenty of benefits. Out of the blue, we were able to link issues with requirements, hold the history of test runs, differentiate results in regards to release, provide complex reports. The organization finally became organised.

To be fully honest, it's been some time since I've last used SpiraTest, thus some of these could be addressed already. But from memory, there were as follows:

• More flexibility in setting default behaviour of particular items, e.g. releases/iterations do not inherit their child nodes' test cases, the same with requirements and subrequirements etc.
• Working better adaptability of custom fields, especially in terms of integration with other tools
• More projects interoperability, also some root settings could be able to apply for each project. I missed the ability to establish the same workflow for each project, when a change was applied, to keep the consistency we had to update each project separately
• More visual flexibility. To change the size of input fields, we had to dig into application code. Each new SpiraTest update obviously turned it all to default
• Tool integration plugins are great, which doesn't mean they couldn't be better. Synchronizing items is fine, but why not synchronize relations between them?

I've used it for nearly two years.

No issues encountered.

This is the biggest plus. I'd rate it 10/10. For the whole time I was using SpiraTest, I had an impression of being the only customer which counts. They answered even the most naive questions, patiently explained everything, went ste by step with more complex issues, even helped to fix corrupted database. If I were to recommend SpiraTest to others, I'd start with excellent technical support!I worked with TestLink, free tool not comparable with SpiraTest, in advance to the latter. Never evaluated any test management tool.

I worked with TestLink, free tool not comparable with SpiraTest, in advance to the latter. Never evaluated any test management tool.

Straightforward. As simply as it is.

If you think about the complex solution and did not purchase any tool yet, it could be wise to consider the full SpiraTeam Enterprise solution. Although integration plugins are great, it's nothing better than having the whole solution perfectly integrated with no need to spent weeks on maintaining. And the price is really good as for the quality of the system. Try the solution first, Inflectra is usually fine with extending trial period if required. And for this price - do you really think about limited number of users...?

Read the documentation first and do not shorten the process yourself. If you have any concerns, do not hesitate to ask technical support - they will help.

The fact that you are able to structure and keep track of the complete test process has been the main goal.

Test approach can be set up with the use of multiple test teams who (thanks to SpiraTest) are able to work in collaboration with each other (follow-up of testing, division of tasks and effort, high level of traceability).

• Not much room for tweaking of menus.
• It's not open for use of add-ins/automation, or at least instability the moment a version differs.
• Slow response of server, possibly because of the cloud performance.

I've used it for two years.

The integration with Atlassian JIRA was forseen and configured, but the moment a new build of SpiraTest arrived, the add-in used for this integration became non-working, so there's no more integration with JIRA.

It's decent, but I'm not ecstatic about it.

It was very straighforward, because of the web-based implementation, so there's no need for a lot of hardware installation/configuration.

We used an in-house configuration manager. You should always evaluate the compatibility with your existing environment/tools.

Before there was nothing, so implementing this was a big step towards a structured test process, so it's priceless.

Considering the cost and complexity of a test management tool like HP Quality Center, SpiraTest provided an acceptable alternative solution, but there are also more alternatives available at this moment.

Don’t be afraid to pay for component you urgently need, but also: don’t hesitate to refuse to pay for aspects you consider to be obsolete).

SpiraTest is a damn fine test management tool, but it seems that they run the risk of missing the ‘innovation train’ if Inflectra doesn’t act fast…