SmartBear Software Updates Application Life Cycle Management, Test Management Solutions
Streamlines software delivery process by providing software development and QA teams with more granular control over agile test management and release management activities while enhancing test reuse.
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SmartBear Software has updated its SaaS-based and on-premise application life cycle management tool, ALMComplete 2011, and QA and test management tool, QAComplete 2011. With this major release, SmartBear is providing software development and QA teams with more granular control over agile test management and release management activities while enhancing test reuse.
Features in the 2011 releases include a new test management module that gives development and QA teams advanced test coverage visibility and central control over manual and automated testing assets, promoting consistency and test reuse. Additionally, a new release management module provides teams with more agility to manage and collaborate on software artifacts across releases, assess release readiness, and make informed release decisions.
SmartBear ALMComplete and QAComplete are aimed at the development team looking to solve an immediate need with minimal overhead. This release is full of new features to improve efficiency and reduce manual steps in the software delivery process across multiple platforms.
Test Management
A new Test Management module enables teams to approach testing more strategically and easily visualize differences in planned versus actual test coverage, improving efficiency. Advancements include high-level and detailed views, the ability to centrally manage manual and automated testing assets, and the capability to drill down into supporting detail from a single interface. Features include
- A new test library provides a central repository for all manual and automated tests and promotes consistency across test sets during test reuse. Users can also change test steps during test runs when required and synchronize changes back to the test library.
- Dynamic test step-level management lets users view test steps and expected results simultaneously for a greater level of regulatory audit-ability; attach files, and assign pass/fail at test step-level; users can create critical steps that act as showstoppers when tests fail
- Enhanced test control lets users apply “cloning” to create multiple test sets with different operating systems and browser configurations quickly and specify “stop on failure” to cease testing at any point
Release Management
A new “Releases” module enables teams to define discrete sprints, iterations, and builds (including start and end dates) and link requirements, tasks, test sets, and defects to specific releases. This improves reuse, as well as burn down and velocity analysis. With this module:
- Users gain actionable insight and granular control over requirements, tasks, test sets, tests and defects to help assess risk more accurately and prioritize activities within and across releases
- Users can drill into agile sprints, patches, and other artifacts, view test sets, individual tests, and test run histories
- Receive detailed analytics that are automatically included in release reporting to help users make more informed release decisions and compare analytics from release to release, sprint to sprint
Reporting and Dashboards
Advanced reporting and analytics focus on traceability and test step-level detail. They render critical issues visually in multiple formats to assess progress, improve comprehension, and meet executive reporting requirements. New dashboards are provided for release reporting, requirements traceability, and run analysis.
Steve Miller, vice president of ALM solutions at SmartBear said, “The ALMComplete and QAComplete 2011 releases provide more actionable information to agile development, QA, and project management teams so they can quickly drill into release and test case details without having to navigate a myriad of screens. We’ve focused on visibility, efficiency, and usability for the end user, so they can easily integrate ALMComplete or QAComplete into their daily software delivery process.
ALMComplete 2011 (including QAComplete 2011) is available immediately as Software-as-a-Service (Saas) or on-premise. Free trials are available at www.smartbear.com/almcomplete/ and smartbear.com/qacomplete/.
More information is available at smartbear.com/almcomplete/whats-new/.