There is increasing time pressure on software testing to deliver effective risk mitigation and keep stakeholders informed. It is almost impossible to achieve these twin goals without test-management tools.
Enter OpenText ALM Quality Center, the leading test management tool for traditional/waterfall-based software projects.
A reliable, robust, and feature-rich test management tool is the linchpin of a successful quality assurance strategy. ALM Quality Center (QC) simplifies, streamlines, and optimises your testing processes.
This insight looks at QC’s key features, benefits, and how it can revolutionise your software QA environment.
Why Do You Need Test Management Tools?
Test management tools save time, ensure consistency and simplify reporting. Great tools like ALM QC give your test team time back every day, which more than pays for the cost of the tool.
Software is more complex than ever; it’s also accessed by more people, over more devices, and in more situations than ever. Because of this, defects that would have been minor internal issues are scrutinised more than ever before, and major defects can be catastrophic.
In the modern world, software quality is paramount, and businesses need to test more than they ever have – but managing these tests can be overly complex and time-consuming without the right tools.
Test management tools allow you to manage software tests across your business easily.
What is OpenText ALM Quality Center?
QC is the most comprehensive test management tool for traditional/waterfall-based projects. It has a rich history, initially developed by Mercury Interactive (as Test Director) and later acquired by HP and then Micro Focus.
QC provides an organised framework for software quality assurance, allowing you to manage your software testing process in a single, centralised platform.
It encompasses various aspects of software testing, including requirement management, test design and execution, defect management, and report generation.
QC has been at the forefront of test management for many years, and constant development ensures it will stay at the top of the tree for many years. It is the most robust, reliable, and accessible test management tool for traditional/waterfall-based landscapes.
ALM QC is often the go-to test management tool for test professionals when they switch employers and want to increase software quality quickly. It is heavily used in banks & insurance, manufacturing and pharma, and those running major ERP platforms such as SAP and Oracle.
5 Key Features of OpenText Quality Center
QC has been built to streamline and optimise your testing processes.
The following key features make QC a go-to choice for project teams around the globe, simplifying and elevating their application quality to new levels.
- Requirements Management: This feature allows project teams to define, manage, and track requirements. It aids in maintaining the correlation between the requirements and the test cases, ensuring that all requirements are adequately covered in the testing phase.
- Test Management: QC facilitates the creation, management, and systematic execution of tests. It provides test visibility and traceability, ensuring every test case is auditable and can be linked to its respective requirement.
- Defect Management: QC enables users to raise, track and manage defects throughout the SDLC. Defects can be created at any point, linked to test cases and requirements, and detailed, customisable workflows ensure they can be managed as per your company’s internal team structures, procedures and policies.
- Risk-Based Quality Management: This feature helps your teams prioritise their testing efforts based on the risks involved, optimising the QA process for maximum efficiency and effectiveness.
- Dashboards and Reporting: It is impossible to overstate the importance of finger-on-the-pulse testing visibility –access to test results and progress provides a project with deep insights and powerful steering information. QC provides intuitive dashboards and generates insightful reports, aiding you in decision-making and overall project management.
Note: not all features are in all editions, see the table below.
Additional Features of ALM Quality Center
QC is a proven test-management tool that has kept up to date with modern technological advances with features such as:
- Sprinter – Efficient and effective manual testing. Sprinter improves tester productivity and accuracy with easy-to-use screen toolbars, annotated screenshots, video and textual test step capture, intelligent defect documentation, automated data entry and more.
- Integration with other tools. QC improve productivity by connecting to OpenText and 3rd party tools, including UFT One, LoadRunner, Jenkins and Jira.
- Agile/Wagile/Hybrid. QC also integrates with the Agile/DevOps test management tool ValueEdge Quality (aka ALM Octane), giving you the best of both worlds.
5 Reasons Why You Should Use OpenText Quality Center
Quality assurance is a critical factor in determining any software project’s success. QC is designed with this understanding at its core, offering a robust solution to enhance your testing efficiency and effectiveness.
QC is the go-to test management tool for traditional/waterfall project teams because it elevates your software quality and streamlines your testing procedures.
- Efficient Project Management: QC is the central repository for all testing-related activities. It helps organise, track, and manage various test aspects, improving productivity and efficiency.
- Enhanced Communication and Collaboration: QC’s web-based structure facilitates real-time communication and collaboration among team members, irrespective of their geographical location.
- Improved Visibility and Control: With its advanced reporting capabilities, QC provides better visibility into the testing process, making it easier to identify bottlenecks, monitor progress, and manage changes.
- Optimised Test Coverage: QC provides efficient test coverage by enabling requirement-test case traceability. This and a risk-based approach lead to lean and effective testing that mitigates real-world business risks.
- Reduced Time and Cost: QC helps identify defects early in the development cycle. This reduces the time and cost associated with late-stage bug fixing.
Quality Center Versions
OpenText offers a variety of Quality Center editions to cater to the needs of different organisations, ranging from large enterprises to small teams and startups.
Which edition you choose depends on factors like your team size, project complexity, the extent of application lifecycle management you need, and your budget considerations.
ALM Edition
The ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) Edition, as the name suggests, focuses on managing the entire application lifecycle from inception to retirement. It offers end-to-end traceability, integration with popular IDEs, powerful analytics, enhanced security features, and support for traditional and waterfall methodologies.
QC ALM Edition is designed for large organisations requiring comprehensive complex application portfolio management.
Enterprise Edition
Quality Center Enterprise Edition is a full-featured, powerful test management tool that offers capabilities for requirements management, test planning, test execution, defect tracking, and reporting. It seamlessly integrates with other development and functional testing tools.
Enterprise Edition is suited for medium to large organisations that need a comprehensive solution for managing intricate testing processes across numerous projects.
Team Edition
Quality Center Team Edition is a streamlined SaaS version of QC designed for teams from 5 to low hundreds who don’t need the more feature-rich versions. the It features a user-friendly interface and offers a complete yet simplified test management solution, including requirement, test, and defect management functionalities.
QC Team Edition can handle up to 5 projects with up to 900 users per project and is ideal for small to medium-sized teams.
Express Edition:
Express Edition is similar to the Team Edition but designed for smaller teams or organisations. It provides a subset of the features available in the Enterprise Edition and limits the number of users and projects compared to other QC versions.
I recommend looking at Team Edition instead of Express unless you must have an on-premises solution.
| ALM | QC Enterprise | QC Team Edition | QC Express | |
| Hosting | On-Premises & SaaS | On-Premises & SaaS | SaaS | On-Premises |
| Requirement Management | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Test Management | Full | Most | Most | Limited |
| Sprinter included | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Defect Management | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Defect Traceability | Yes | No | No | No |
| Development Collaboration | Yes | No | No | No |
| Integrations | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Licencing Limits | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited | 20 |
In Summary
In an era where software quality directly impacts the success of a business, OpenText ALM Quality Center is the most significant player in traditional/waterfall test management.
Quality Center is not just a tool – it’s a quality assurance ecosystem designed to help your organisation realise the full potential of your software. It improves efficiency, enhances communication, improves visibility and control, and reduces time and cost.
QC’s comprehensive capabilities offer a structured, streamlined, and systematic approach to software testing. Whether managing requirements, planning and executing tests, tracking defects, or generating insightful reports, QC has got you covered, now and in the future.
ALM Quality Centre is the solution you need if you’re seeking to optimise your testing processes and drive a quality-focused software development approach.
