Definitely support of the agile methodology is the most valuable feature. We have received a lot of feedback from our agile teams that the ALM.NET is not supporting their work and it was really great to see that ALM Octane is fulfilling those needs. But our development and testing teams are looking for the new agile and DevOps deliveries.
Sales at a comms service provider with 10,001+ employees
Support of the agile methodology is the most valuable feature.
What is most valuable?
How has it helped my organization?
We see a double benefit because part of our business is still very legacy-type. We are running the mainframes, and so on, the old kind of solutions, where we pretty much see that, at least for the next year to two to maybe even three years, we will continue using the ALM.NET, as such, maybe even for the functional testing and the UFT, as such. But another team is quickly adopting the agile methodology and there we have hardly seen any validity at all on the Octane for over a year now. We started to implement it the first real project in NND Center, and see good results from that.
What needs improvement?
The new solutions that are soon coming for ALM Octane, such as predictivity and requirements management, are very welcome. Those have been missing from the existing solution. So far, we have been able to manage with the other alternative solution and integrations, but I am also really looking forward to that.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
So far, we are very happy with stability, even though knowing that there is quite a lot of new development, especially for the ALM Octane. But so far, so good. I have nothing bad to say.
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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We are at a very early stage in implementing this solution. But at the moment it looks promising. Although, it is difficult to say how far it goes. But at least, so far, we have started.
How are customer service and support?
So far, technical support is very good because we have been using HPE products, or the earlier Mercury products, for a long time. We have a quite good collaboration with them. From that kind of background and knowing our kind of working environment and solutions, together with their technical support and help, we have been able to implement these tools in the right way the first time, without trying to invent the wheel on our side.
How was the initial setup?
Setup was pretty straightforward. Obviously, we kind of had a bit of discussion internally, because we didn't take a traditional migration from the earlier product. We really started from scratch. That is still somewhat an issue for some of the deliveries, that they don’t want to use the agile method. But we have highly recommended this because they are two different worlds and that it would be better to plan it carefully and not just carry on all the crap from history.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Our development teams are using a lot of open source solutions and other tools, such as JIRA. But, for our business needs and the business purposes, we have seen that HPE solutions are still valid for our business. We need to have backwards traceability. We have to have the capability to show what has been done, what's been going on, and what. In some of the cases, there has been the discussions that, "Yes. We have all this information, but you have to go to the Jenkins, or this and that logs, and it's there." But that's not what the business wants to see. They want to have a high-level visibility on their business. That is why we are still keeping the HPE products, and probably also in the future we'll have them.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Product Development Manager at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
We can check everything, know who is the sponsor for it, and make a test plan. Everything is very visible.
Pros and Cons
- "From reporting to team management, everything is better now."
- "ALM uses a waterfall approach. We have some hybrid approaches in the company and need a more agile approach."
What is our primary use case?
We use it for manual and automatic testing along with defect and requirements management. We can check everything, know who is the sponsor for it, and make a test plan. Everything is very visible.
What needs improvement?
ALM uses a waterfall approach. We have some hybrid approaches in the company and need a more agile approach. We have also installed ALM Octane and are trying to see if it fills the approach that we are looking for our company.
For how long have I used the solution?
One to three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is very stable. We have not had any problems.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have a good impression of the scalability. I have been very satisfied.
How are customer service and technical support?
I used tech support once. It took a while to solve the issue, but it was solved.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before, we used Excel for complex testings. Using this solution has been a huge step for us. From reporting to team management, everything is better now.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
We have divided our licenses between Micro Focus ALM and ALM Octane. It works for us.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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QA Manager at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Produces a number of reports and graphs which help when working with our clients
What is most valuable?
I am the QA Manager, so we use it to score all our test cases, results, defects, and reporting, which is very important. We're able to produce a number of reports and graphs. This helps us a lot when working with our clients.
What needs improvement?
We're doing a lot of agile work and using a number of different agile tools. Agile integration, as right now it does integrate with version 1.0, but I'm not sure about its integration with some of the other agile tools.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've been using it for about five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is stable. We've really had no downtime experiences. We've had good experiences with it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is scalable. We're actually moving onto the SaaS product. We're looking at that right now.
How is customer service and technical support?
Tech support has been very helpful when we've had some questions or issues. They've been very responsive.
How was the initial setup?
I'll find out over the next couple of months as we are looking to do the first upgrade since I have been using it.
What other advice do I have?
It's a very good tool. We use it throughout the company. There are just some integration points which could be a little better. But if they're out there, I don't know about them. Maybe having the knowledge and knowing about them would help as well.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Managing Director at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Allows you to arrange your test data in a systematic manner.
What is most valuable?
- Requirements Management
- Test Management
- Test Execution
- Defect Management
- Business Model
- Traceability
- Test configuration
- Test Parameters
- Integration with HPE UFT and HPE LoadRunner
All the options are designed so if you are using this tool for Test Management, then you must have them all enabled for efficient use.
How has it helped my organization?
It has basic and advanced facilities that allow you to arrange all of your test data in very well arranged, systematic manner.
What needs improvement?
Graphs can be further improved to manage more requirements at a time.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have you used this solution for seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We never encountered any issues with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I did not encounter any issues with scalability. It depends on the number of licenses. If you have them all active at the time, it still responds the same way, which is fast.
How are customer service and technical support?
I would give technical support a rating of 10/10.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We used Excel, but it was so difficult to manage the various Excel files and sheets just like maintaining a register book for your records. ALM allows you to handle them all with just one click.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward as it it required little knowledge of the server to do a simple server-side installation.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
If we have huge data and more number of users managing the data, then ALM is the best option for our organization. It also applies if your team is distributed, out-sourced or in-sourced.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We did not evaluate other options. I was aware of their earlier version which had a very good market and feedback, I didn't have to waste my time doing a PoC on any other product.
What other advice do I have?
You must look to implement the minimum system requirements, Configuration, for the server for optimum and efficient use.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: We deliver training on HPE Testing tools for HPE on their behalf to HPE clients.
Global Technical Lead, Development Services at a manufacturing company with 1,001-5,000 employees
We're able to integrate it with SAP Solution Manager and it provides transparency for test execution and tracking.
What is most valuable?
- Test Management
- Tracking
- Integration with SAP Solution Manager
How has it helped my organization?
The processes of both test execution and test tracking have become more transparent.
We use it for big SAP implementations, which provides ROI after the first project.
What needs improvement?
More flexible reporting would be good.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used it for one-and-a-half years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
No issues encountered.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No issues encountered.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
No issues encountered.
How are customer service and technical support?
The support is good, however their response time could be improved.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
No solution was previously in place.
How was the initial setup?
It was straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
A vendor was used for support during the implementation, but we had internal knowledge as well.
What was our ROI?
The implementation ROI highly depends on the size of the project the tool will be used for in the future. For big SAP implementations, ROI will be gained after the first project.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
SAP Solution Manager TAO was considered as we are using that tool for Application Lifecycle Management.
But due to the integration possibilities with HP ALM and SAP Solution Manager, HP ALM was the choice we made.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
QA Tester at a comms service provider with 1,001-5,000 employees
We've found the requirements repository, signature-approval capability, and traceability matrix reporting to be useful.
What is most valuable?
The most useful are the requirements repository, the ability to link requirements to test script steps, and the use of traceability matrix reporting.
How has it helped my organization?
Houses requirements and testing with approvals all in one place. Signature approval capability was very useful.
What needs improvement?
It could be better by incorporating more spell checking and word processing functionalities in steps. Also, it could be more user friendly to "call" other scripts.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used the latest version of ALM for about four years, but I have used all previous versions going back to 2001 through to today.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
No issues encountered.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No issues encountered.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Mostly with the blocking of users when the license limit was reached.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service:
It's 5/10 as our own resources were more useful at solving issues.
Technical Support:It's 5/10 - our own resources were more useful at solving issues due to time constraints with responses.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We did not have a previous solution. This was our first solution.
What other advice do I have?
Make sure it is easy to use for your roles. If you have technical people, other solutions may be better (like resources with VB expertise, etc.). Make sure you implement it as organized by system functionality, not by project.
My current company is just starting to use it, and they keep copying test plans for each project instead of reusing original test plans, which is a waste of time and resources.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Manager of QA at a energy/utilities company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Very good all around test management tool
Valuable Features:
Traceability of bugs to script execution (Test Lab) to Script (Test Plan) to Requirements,
Easy to use.
Web based, so it is easily accessible at multiple sites worldwide.
Room for Improvement:
Expensive Maintenance & Support (M&S), Annual fee.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Principal Business Analyst at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Valuable for us is having all the data in one place. Having the support for a process of testing.
What is most valuable?
Valuable for us is having all the data in one place. Having the support for a process of testing. That professionalizes testing, more or less. You need input, you need a little bit of training as you could use vicarious approaches when you use ALM.
What needs improvement?
They can improve, of course on the deployment side, now whether that will be ALM or Octane I don't know. ALM-Octane with its lower footprint is of course easier to roll out and with the old Java client. I don't know if I could take to a roll out point of view. HP is probably stuck with a bit of a beast. We haven't got many areas where we think it can improve now, if we use it in combination with other tools.
A particular problem area for us is really to improve support for requirements. We come from an environment where everything had procedures for requirements from a business analyst point of view. Having to switch to ALM is a bit of a disappointment. You lose lots of functionality, for example VOV in comparison, baseline reporting. So far being able actually to write the requirements from a granular way. There are system constraints, very old times in ALM which make it an outdated tool for requirements to be frank.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using the product since 2012. We use both ALM and UFT together, as a team.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
ALM is very stable. I'd still rather you didn't talk about facts, but it's stable. We never had a crash, for example. If that's what you mean.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It is highly scalable.
How is customer service and technical support?
The technical support is pretty good. It probably depends on the support contract type you have. Our contract works pretty well as we have dedicated support engineers for our product.
They are knowledgeable and responsive. Sometimes you need a little bit more, but then HP help us to find it as they're knowledgeable troubleshooters. So we never had a problem to get issues fixed when we found that particular person. It was very effective I guess.
How was the initial setup?
The setup of ALM is, well, mixed. You know the old Java clients give some headaches. That's for ALM.
What other advice do I have?
When considering vendors we look for stability, support and reliability. And that's probably it. So we probably are not going for small vendors.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.

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- Do you have any feedback on the HPE ALM Octane release that came out in June 2016?
I have been working with ALM clients on and off for several years back to when it was Mercury's Test Director. While it has improved significantly, I'm disappointed that HP chose to reinvent with Octane rather than inprove the existing product. If they could just get something as simple column sizing right, and stop forcing users to open a overthought panel to simply edit text it would be a vast improvement.