Posts Tagged 'IM'

Spotlight on Spira 6.13 - New Rich Text Editor & Swimlanes in Diagrams

November 8, 2021

The upcoming release of our Spira platform includes a major overhaul of the rich text editor we use throughout the application. The new editor improves the user experience and features of the text editor, letting users more easily add and view links, create checklists, highlight text, and strike-through text. In addition, it opens the door for adding popular, requested features for adding artifact #tags and @mentions.

In addition, the built-in diagram tools get even more powerful with additional shapes and options. You can now make diagrams that group individual shapes together to form Kanban board diagrams and swim lane diagrams.

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The Perils of Agile Estimation (Part 2)

June 7, 2021

In the previous post, we examined why and how agile software estimation goes wrong so often, and we identified three principles that must support any good estimation method:

  1. Reliability - An estimate must reflect the performed work within a reasonable confidence interval.
  2. Objectivity - The same estimate should be given for a task, regardless of who's giving the estimate.
  3. Consistency - Given nothing else has changed, an estimate should not change with time.

I call this the ROC principles. In this post, we'll start looking at techniques and methods we can apply to our estimation process to implement these principles. In order to properly ROC-ify our estimates, the first thing we need to grok is the difference between complex and complicated tasks.

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The Perils of Agile Estimation (Part 1)

March 23, 2021

Estimation has always been an inflection point in the software engineering world. Many developers admit that one of the hardest parts of their job is not about naming things or invalidating caches (as the old saying goes) but giving estimates. Certainly, for many experienced software engineers, estimates have always been the most frequent area of friction between software developers and managers. Both sides seem to have valid arguments: managers want to know how long things will take, as they need to manage budgets and customer expectations. Developers, on the other hand, know that most software tasks cannot be estimated accurately enough to satisfy the manager's needs. This friction has been so intense that it's given rise to the #NoEstimates movement and many flame wars on social media. But is the choice truly between one of these two extreme positions, or can a happy medium be found that satisfies both sides?

This series of articles attempts to explore and answer this question.

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Simplifying Test Estimation | InflectraCon 2020 IRL

October 29, 2020

We have recently hosted Inflectra's annual user conference - InflectraCon. In 2020, we have dedicated InflectraCon to Agile Software Testing and DevOps theme and held it virtually. InflectraCon 2020 combined multiple tracks, of which, one - called Inflectra in Real Life or IRL in short - showcased the various uses of the Inflectra platforms (SpiraTest, SpiraTeam, SpiraPlan, Rapise, Kronodesk, etc). 

Inflectra is happy to present an InflectraCon 2020 IRL talk by our friend from far away New Zealand - Geoff Horne. In the session, Geoff demonstrates an Excel-based tool for estimating software testing projects. 

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Scaling Spira On-Premise: Enterprise Deployment of Spira | InflectraCon 2020 IRL

October 27, 2020

In early October 2020, we hosted Inflectra's annual user conference - InflectraCon. In 2020, we have dedicated InflectraCon to Agile Software Testing and DevOps theme and held it virtually. InflectraCon 2020 combined multiple tracks, of which, one - called Inflectra in Real Life or IRL in short - showcased the various uses of the Inflectra platforms (SpiraTest, SpiraTeam, SpiraPlan, Rapise, Kronodesk, etc.). 

Today, we'd like to share with you an interview with our loyal customer and friend - Jill Ball of the Cincinnati Insurance Company. This interview was recorded as part of the InfletraCon 2020 IRL track. The interview highlights the growing on-premise implementation from 20 users to 1350 with redundancy and load-balancing for Spira administrators and architects. Enjoy the presentation below!

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Implementing a Large HR ERP System using SpiraPlan at EY | InflectraCon 2020 IRL

October 27, 2020

In early October 2020, we hosted Inflectra's annual user conference - InflectraCon. In 2020, we have dedicated InflectraCon to Agile Software Testing and DevOps theme and held it virtually. InflectraCon 2020 combined multiple tracks, of which, one - called Inflectra in Real Life or IRL in short - showcased the various uses of the Inflectra platforms (SpiraTest, SpiraTeam, SpiraPlan, Rapise, Kronodesk, etc.). 

Today, we'd like to share with you an interview with our Dutch Partner - Robust-IT as part of the InfletraCon 2020 IRL track. The interview highlights the benefits that EY found adopting the SpiraPlan platform for managing the entire implementation and rollout of SAP SuccessFactors.

Enjoy the recording of the interview below!

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It’s Automation Jim... But Not As We Know It! | InflectraCon 2020 IRL

October 26, 2020

Today, we present an InflectraCon 2020 IRL talk called: It’s Automation Jim... But Not As We Know It! by our dear friend, Aaron Athfield, the Technology Director at Ceefa Software. The session demos the WorX Manual Testing Accelerator for SpiraTest. Enjoy the presentation below!

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Webinar #Recap: Estimating User Stories in the Agile Space

May 23, 2019

On May 7, 2019, Inflectra and Dr. Sriram Rajagopalan  hosted a live webinar on Estimating User Stories in the Agile Space. The webinar is part of Inflectra's Tier 2 agile webinar series called: Deeper Dive Into Agile: Practical Tips On Managing Agile Projects.

If you missed the webinar, we understand - and are happy to share with you the most important take-aways.

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Blog: Art of Agile Estimation

May 22, 2019

Frequently, people wonder whether agile estimation approaches differ completely from the plan-driven approaches in project management. While each framework has its own uniqueness in their approach to gathering estimates, the nature of estimates gathered should be considered in relation to the project or product lifecycle.

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Webinar Recap: Cutting the Costs And Improving The Software Quality with SpiraTeam®

March 15, 2019

On March 7th, 2019, Inflectra and #SriramRajagopalan hosted a webinar on Cutting the Costs And Improving The Software Quality with SpiraTeam®. This is the 4th webinar in the certificate series called: Journey Into Agile With Inflectra - A Free Webinar Course.

If you missed the webinar, please enjoy the recap in this blog.

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Bulk Import of Requirements Test Step Traceability for Mission Systems

October 18, 2018

One of the unique needs when designing and developing mission systems for the defense industry, is the fact that you need to be able to trace system requirements to individual test steps in a test case. Based on this advice we received from industry subject matter experts, we added support in SpiraTeam v5 for this feature. However one limitation was that the data migration tools we have for loading data from Excel into SpiraTeam don't let you add requirement - test step links in bulk... until today.

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Migrating from Legacy Test Management Tools Such as TestRail to SpiraTest

December 6, 2017

We always want to make things easy for our customers, and many of our recent customers have been looking to move to SpiraTest for their test management because they are excited about the new exploratory testing features, easy to use drag-and-drop user interface, integrated requirements management, and the powerful reporting and analytics. They are also concerned that their old legacy test management tool will no longer be supported or developed due to a recent company acquisition (TestRail by IDERA, HPE by Micro Focus, etc.). So to augment our line up of migration tools that we already have for HP ALM, Microsoft Test Manager, Excel, Word and Google Sheets, we have added a  new migration tool to streamline switching from TestRail to SpiraTest.

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Short, Sweet, and Simple!

January 2, 2017

We set ourselves a challenge for the end of 2016: redefine our company tagline to better reflect who we are and what we do.

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SpiraTeam & SpiraPlan Instant Messenger

June 9, 2016

In this second post about new features released in SpiraTeam 5.0 we discuss enhancements to the built-in instant messenger. We would love to hear what you think, including about our plans for further messaging improvements.

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Why Time Spent is Not the Same as Work Done!

March 3, 2016

One of the questions we get frequently asked is - how do the various effort fields in Spira work? Specifically - if I have an estimated effort of 10 hours but the actual effort is 5 hours, how come it doesn't show 50% completed. This blog post explains the fields in Spira and why time spent does not always (or often) equate to how much work has been done!

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The Meaning of ‘Done’

June 19, 2015

“Is it done?” A question with possibly dangerous answers, at least where cooking is concerned. With software development an incorrect “Yes” could mean customers get low quality, buggy software Read More

Beyond the Document Paradigm – part 3

May 13, 2015

In this conclusion we shall see that migration to a test management or requirements management tool can be easier than it might seem initially. Read More

User Story Normalization

April 24, 2015

Traditional software development estimating techniques are slow, long lasting exercises and as such are totally unsuited to Agile processes. New methods of estimating have emerged which fit the Agile model, requiring minimal effort to provide ‘just enough’ information to support prioritization and decision making. The popular unit of measurement for Agile sizing is the Story Point. Read More

Rapise - Using Optical Character Recognition (OCR)

March 19, 2015

You have tried nearly everything. You tried learning, that didn't work. You tried simulating the object, but it is moving around. All hope is lost. Here he comes to save the day, that means UnderDog is on the way!!!In this case, underdog, or the hero, may be OCR. Rapise has many built in capabilities to facilitate the learning and identification of objects used in a test, and OCR is one of them. But what is OCR anyway? Read More

The History of Software (from Capterra)

January 21, 2015

We spend most of our days using computers at work, smartphones when we're out and about, and tablets and PCs at home. Technology, especially software, has become such an integral part of both work and daily life, it's hard to remember a world without it. In fact, finding a world without computers might be harder than you think; they have been around now for decades. Software has made the impossible possible, and the laborious and tedious, fast and easy. Read More

How to Succeed with Software Tools – Part 2

December 10, 2014

In this series of blog articles we examine some of the essential factors required for the successful implementation and use of software tools. This week we look at the need for continual post-implementation adaptation and refinement. Read More

Agile - Is Constant Process Improvement Imperative?

November 12, 2014

In this post we continue our examination of various Agile methodology ideas and ask whether they are valid or whether they are in fact, industry myths. Next on the chopping block - do you need to have constant process improvement to be agile? Read More

Rapise - Learn Through Simulation

September 23, 2014

Every now and again, and it does happen to all of us, we encounter an object that may be poorly built, hacked together, incompletely coded, or just resistant to being recognized by any of the myriad of methods employed within Rapise. I would take this situation from two separate perspectives depending on how often you encounter the issue of not being able to learn or interact with an object with Rapise. Read More

Estimating Agile Projects

August 26, 2014

Traditional software development estimating techniques are slow, long lasting exercises and as such are totally unsuited to Agile processes. New methods of estimating have emerged which fit the Agile model, requiring minimal effort to provide ‘just enough’ information to support prioritization and decision making. The popular unit of measurement for Agile sizing is the Story Point. Read More