Helix ALM

Avantages

Helix ALM is super flexible, and can be configured in just about any way you need. It can be set up to automate some steps, and when you complain, they have excellent customer support.

Inconvénients

It is somewhat difficult to set up, and if it set up incorrectly, it is extremely frustrating to use.

Avantages

There are numerous packages out there but few that are all in one - one support center packages like Perforce Helix. People often forget that the biggest investment is the user's learning time and having s flexible tool with strong support and ownership is essential.
Many other tool packages depend on email or user group/forum support that is unpredictable for each of the "linked" parts of the tool set. I've spend many hours to days trying to find help for problems on some of these.
That said, I like that Helix in "insanely configurable", flexible and strongly supported with phone center, tutorials, examples and templates.

Inconvénients

Round tripping items with MS tools as Word & Excel somewhat cumbersome. Editing in Helix vs familiar MS Word limited.

Avantages

nothing about this product can be said to be good , it is old , cumbersome and clunky .

the product needs to be refactored and replaced

Inconvénients

poor reports - difficult to create
can not have different type of issues
does not really support scrum approach

Avantages

I work closely with coders at my company when developing software to make everyone's lives easier in the workspace. We have been using Helix ALM to ensure these are always state-of-the-art developments and it has proved to be reliable so far.

Inconvénients

I don't have any complaints about this service.

Avantages

Captures requirements, bugs and testing all in one place, instant update so people are all using the most up to date version, easy to add new users and licenses, can update fields and text easily to better suit project needs,

Inconvénients

Word export challenges mean that the team won't use the export feature any more and instead has to make the update twice - once in the ALM and once in our "official" word version

Test case and Test Run setup isn't WYSIWIG when embedding images into test steps, greatly annoying my developers

Test Run system is not adaptable to mechanical testing, where there is one test setup and then many samples to run on a simple test (like a pull test) - so we have testing in multiple places.

Validation overhead for medical device software tool requirements means we can't easily update (which means we can't update without spending on re-validation)

The tool is not particularly user-friendly - I've used it for years and know where almost everything is, but new users, particularly less tech-savvy ones, have an extremely difficult time moving items through the workflow and executing tests in the system.

Avantages

The software contains good functionality for linking various bits of information together between the different modules that we use (requirements, test case management, defect tracking). It's also has the flexibility to be configured to work with many different kinds of workflows (we know because we've gone through a number of different design processes over the years that we've used this).

Inconvénients

The text editing is the portion of the software that I like the least. Copying and pasting seems to mangle linefeeds, building up a nested list of bullets has inconsistent behavior, and trying to create/edit a table is incredibly awkward.

The text editor is still functional, but it's fallen below the minimum expectations for a text editor in this day and age.

Avantages

The way the traceability is shown and connected together in one page.
Adding new test cases and requirements, and supporting the while requirements flow from start to end.

Inconvénients

In test execution , the execution itself it good, but when it comes to sample size where generally should be one Pass/Fail status, i get several results per number of samples.

Avantages

Dashboard look great really great and have valuable information. Love issues filters. You can easily find required issue with them.

Inconvénients

Would be better if it's not lag. Some workflow steps could be improved. One flow could be assigned to two users.

Avantages

Shelving files is a great feature for users because they are saved onto the server and if the developers system crashes or the developer left the company, other users can retrieve them.

Inconvénients

When a new file or folder is created in a "workspace", you cannot add it until you have added the folder in the workspace configuration. It's not intuitive enough if you are a new user.

Avantages

I like that it ties everything together and if you have things set up correctly, you get great trace-ability.

It is VERY powerful, and flexible.

Inconvénients

With so much flexibility comes a LOT of configuration. And it's not always easy to modify your workflow once it's been in use for a while.

I really don't like that I have to kick everyone out of the project to make the tiniest change to the workflow and events.

The cost of licenses makes it hard for us to have enough for everyone.

Avantages

We can select a bunch of defects and make changes for fields such as test owner or risk score, instead of editing each and every defects. This saves a lot of time

Inconvénients

This tool works well in internet explorer. If they provide browser comparability for chrome too, it will be great

Avantages

I like the test case/test run model which gives the the ability to generate base tests and instantiate them using test runs. I write the test once, and generate the multiple times per feature release or sprint.

Inconvénients

The web interface for the product is not as rich as the thin client. Would like to see that catch up feature wise.

Avantages

Workflow customization, integration with source provider. Dashboards looks nice feature and allows to plan future releases.

Inconvénients

Lack of HTML support in emails sent by Helix ALM. It still doesn't support inline images. Links... Links could be displayed in more user friendly view.

Avantages

easy to sort items using catalogs, also it's very flexible software and allow to highly customize according our needs.

Inconvénients

in issue window it's hard to see some details as they are hidden in various tabs. usually we do not notice attached additional files and number of reports.

Avantages

Ease of use for IT people and Business alike. Anytime we've had a question on how to use it (thru Seapine Software) it was always answered quickly.

Inconvénients

Reporting has always been a bit weak but we make do. We also use Test Case Management and it works out well for us also.

Avantages

Everything in one place including requirements/ test cases etc. I am still learning but not enough web content compared to JIRA.

Inconvénients

Cannot create Dashboards that we need. Not sufficient Widgets and we cannot create any widget other than pre-defined ones.
Once you create more projects, you only can generate report per projects. My team works in multiple projects and I have to write multiple reports to see the work.

Avantages

Easy to set up, configure and administer. Great way to keep things organized. Keeps team on track with tasks.

Inconvénients

Client-based application. It would be great if this was converted into a web application. Also, it can get overwhelming if you over complicate the set up.

Avantages

The most important thing is Filters and our company using it as much as possible. Also, we are very happy about Requirements section.

Inconvénients

Some filters during Helix Item creation are required but they are not marked as required, i.e. Impact

Avantages

Easy to use and customize for specific projects, easy to track specific tasks/issues to requirements and develop test cases

Inconvénients

All features are not available using the web interface making it difficult to perform administrative tasks over the web when access a workstation on the server's network is not available

Avantages

Easy to fit the processes to our needs.
It is realy a good thing, that this software is so easy to fit also to smal process and deep, and complex processes.

Inconvénients

We use a old Version form 2012, so we dont now the newest Features. This old version is not very nice and not so easy to use as it could be.

Avantages

It has a web interface so the client software does not have to be used. It is easy to use and easily customizable with custom fields

Inconvénients

Reports are not easily exported to Word for putting test cases into our company's document template.

Avantages

Mostly self describing User Interface for users and the high configurability of items to make it work for a lot of different requirement types.

Inconvénients

Even a lot is configurable, the missing of a possibility to save and distribute a view between users and specific per document reduces the usability enormous.

Avantages

Its speed and execution and its usage of different features like - sending emails, record and playback, user-defined codes are excellent.

Inconvénients

The methodology used for recording - like Contextmenu, which makes the playback session to fail, even though the necessary objects are available on the screen. Most of the time I have to debug the tool than the software against which it is being recorded