Posts Tagged 'Management'

Is Your Avoidance of GenAI Creating the Very Risks You Fear?

November 19, 2025

You’ve made the decision: a blanket ban on Generative AI in your Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). Or worst: no decision to adopt GenAI yet. It seems like the safe, controlled choice. But what is the real cost of this caution?

Unveiling the Impact Part I: Project Level Requirements Analysis Process

June 11, 2024

In our previous article, we examined how deficiencies in requirements management have historically contributed to significant project failures, underscoring the necessity of robust requirement validation processes. In part 3 of an ongoing series with our partner Orca Intelligence, discover the importance of conducting impact analysis in the requirements analysis process and how it can lead to successful project outcomes.

What You Missed: Risk Management Strategies for Agile Success

May 13, 2024

Are your agile projects navigating a sea of uncertainties? Are risks lurking beneath the surface, threatening to derail your progress? If so, you're not alone.

In a recent webinar, "Managing Risks in Agile Enterprises," Dr. Sriram Rajagopalan dove into the critical importance of risk management in Agile, sharing actionable insights and strategies that can transform how you approach and conquer project challenges.

Read more to see the recording, highlights, and more.

Maximizing Project Performance with Spira: A Guide to Lead and Cycle Time Metrics

February 27, 2024

Are you looking to unlock the full potential of your project management with Spira? 

Learn how to accurately measure, analyze, and optimize your software development processes with Inflectra's handy guide on mastering Lead and Cycle Time metrics to achieve enhanced efficiency and productivity. Dive into the details of these crucial metrics, ensuring data integrity, and visualizing process efficiency to drive your projects to success. 

Spira vs. JIRA+Plugins: Witness a Game-Changing Shift in Project Management Excellence

February 20, 2024

In a recent webinar that shook the foundations of project management, attendees were treated to an eye-opening demonstration of SpiraPlan's superiority over the conventional JIRA+Plugins approach. The webinar, titled "Witness a game-changing shift in project management excellence," provided a comprehensive overview of how SpiraPlan outperforms JIRA+Plugins in terms of intelligence, integration, and cost-effectiveness. Continue reading to access the webinar recording, highlights, slideshow, and more.

Enhancing Agile Scrum Through Effective Requirements Management and Prioritization

January 10, 2024

In the dynamic world of Agile Scrum framework, the essence of project success lies in the meticulous management of requirements and prioritization of tasks. This article, written by Melissa Daley, CEO and Founder of Orca Intelligence, synthesizes key insights from two critical aspects of Agile project management: Requirements Management and Prioritization in the Agile Scrum Process.

Risk and Compliance in the World of FinTech: Insights from Inflectra's Expert Series

May 13, 2023

On April 5, 2023, Inflectra hosted an enlightening panel discussion on Understanding Risk and Compliance in the World of FinTech. Experts in the field - Jan Guido and Raymond Strecker* were joined by Dr. Sriram Rajagopalan in this installment of the Inflectra Expert Series, focusing on the dynamic intersection of fintech, blockchain, cloud computing, and big data. The conversation shed light on the advantages and risks associated with these technologies, emphasizing the critical importance of risk management and compliance in the rapidly evolving world of finance.

Let's delve into the key takeaways from this thought-provoking discussion.

The Risks of Trusting Machines to Check Themselves

May 1, 2023

As we deploy AI and ML-based systems and applications is: how do we test them? With traditional software systems, humans write requirements, develop the system, and then have other humans (aided by computers) test them to ensure the results match. With AI/ML-developed systems, there often are no discrete requirements. Instead, there are large data sets, models, and feedback mechanisms. In this article, originally published on AI Business, we discuss the risks of letting machines check themselves and provide some potential solutions.

Improving Your Test Process with TMMi Assessments

April 6, 2023

by Experimentus, an Inflectra Partner

I was in a client call earlier in the week, discussing test process improvement, and they asked me what the most common improvement areas identified are.  As an individual and as an organisation we have assessed hundreds of organisations so I think that I’m well qualified to comment based on our experience.

In this article I am going to discuss the three most common areas where we see room for improvement, as well as why they are important:

• Risk management
• Review Process
• Metrics and KPIs

> Please take our quick test assessment survey today.

Why Test Case Parameters Are Like Inception!

March 30, 2023

During a recent product demonstration we were asked to explain how SpiraTest's test case parameters work. One of the key features is the way they can be used recursively to make your test cases more modular and reusable. One of our account managers likened the concept to the way dreams were nested in the popular Science Fiction movie Inception.

Spotlight on Spira 7.5 - Multiple Requirement Approvers

February 27, 2023

We are excited about the upcoming release of Spira v7.5!

The new version includes, amongst many other features, a brand new SpiraApp called Requirement Multiple Approvals. This new plugin for SpiraTeam and SpiraPlan (not SpiraTest, sorry) will allow you to conduct multiple parallel approvals of a requirement in the system. This much-awaiting feature has been asked for by many of our life sciences customers who need to be able to conduct parallel approvals of requirements.

Spotlight on Spira 7.5 - Customizable Requirement Statuses on Boards

February 21, 2023

We are excited to announce that, following on from the redesign of the main planning board in Spira, we have listened to your feedback around requirements' status. In our new version 7.5 release of Spira coming out shortly, we have changed how the requirements statuses work to give you greater flexibility and control on whether a status appears in the board, and crucially, the order they are displayed in.

Using Risk-Driven Development (RDD) in Software Delivery

January 18, 2023

There is not a single industry today that does not use software to manage their projects or its portfolio of operations. Whether it is developing software that the company sells for their clients or assuring quality in the continuous realization of value through the operational value delivery pipeline, risk management is critical. Find out how you can use risk-driven development to deliver higher quality software at lower risk.

Risk Management: Definition, Importance, & Types

November 22, 2022

Unfortunately, all projects and undertakings involve some amount of uncertainty or risk. Whether it’s minuscule or highly likely, the consequences of risk can end up being costly on a number of levels — and when you’re unprepared, these consequences can be catastrophic. But what does risk management actually mean, why is it so crucial to a quality product, and how can you ensure that yours is strong?

Preparing for the GAMP Transition to Computer Software Assurance

November 10, 2022

Good Automated Manufacturing Practice (GAMP) is, inter alia, a set of guidelines for manufacturers and users of automated systems in the pharmaceutical industry. GAMP is part of the medical industry’s risk management approach in software development and supports software testing and validation. We thought it would be useful to highlight where GAMP is going as part of the latest guidelines from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and how SpiraPlan can help you get there.

Using SpiraPlan for Risk-Based Testing

November 9, 2022

Risk-Based Testing (RBT) is a software testing type that is based on the probability of risk. It involves assessing the risk based on software complexity, the criticality of business, frequency of use, possible areas with defects, and areas of the system that have changed the most. Risk-based testing prioritizes the testing of features and functions of the software application which have the most likely exposure to risks and therefore most likely to have defects. In this article, we discuss some of the ways SpiraPlan can assist you with your Risk Based Testing.

Recap: Application Lifecycle Management Scenarios with SpiraPlan

October 3, 2022

We recently demonstrated SpiraPlan to a large, multinational life sciences manufacturing company. During the series of demonstrations and proof concepts, we configured SpiraPlan for a set of different use cases, including demand management, application portfolio management, vendor selection and management, change management, application decommissioning, configuration management, supplier qualification, and more. In a series of articles based on those demonstrations, we highlighted many different use cases and provided best practices and ideas for how to configure SpiraPlan. This concluding article recaps the different use cases in one easy to use post.

Using SpiraPlan for Configuration & Change Management

September 29, 2022

We recently demonstrated SpiraPlan to a large, multinational life sciences manufacturing company. During the series of demonstrations and proof concepts, we configured SpiraPlan for a set of different use cases, including demand management, application portfolio management, vendor selection and management, change management, application decommissioning, configuration management, and supplier qualification. In this series of articles, we will be highlighting these different use cases and providing best practices and ideas for how to configure SpiraPlan. In this article we will be covering the topic of configuration management and change management.

Using SpiraPlan for Application Decommissioning

September 26, 2022

We recently demonstrated SpiraPlan to a large, multinational life sciences manufacturing company. During the series of demonstrations and proof concepts, we configured SpiraPlan for a set of different use cases, including demand management, application portfolio management, vendor selection and management, change management, application decommissioning, configuration management, and supplier qualification. In this series of articles, we will be highlighting these different use cases and providing best practices and ideas for how to configure SpiraPlan. In this article we will be covering the topic of application decommissioning.

Using SpiraPlan for Application Portfolio Management

August 15, 2022

We recently demonstrated SpiraPlan to a large, multinational life sciences manufacturing company. During the series of demonstrations and proof concepts, we configured SpiraPlan for a set of different use cases, including demand management, application portfolio management, vendor selection and management, change management, application decommissioning, configuration management, and supplier qualification. In this series of articles, we will be highlighting these different use cases and providing best practices and ideas for how to configure SpiraPlan. In this article we will be covering the topic of application portfolio management.

Using SpiraPlan for Vendor Selection & Management

July 20, 2022

We recently demonstrated SpiraPlan to a large, multinational life sciences manufacturing company. During the series of demonstrations and proof of concepts, we configured SpiraPlan for a set of different use cases, including demand management, application portfolio management, vendor selection and management, change management, application decommissioning, configuration management, and supplier qualification. In this series of articles, we will be highlighting these different use cases and providing best practices and ideas for how to configure SpiraPlan. In this article we will be covering the topic of vendor selection and management.

Series of Conversations On Risk and Risk Management - The Expert Panel

June 24, 2022

Inflectra has launched a series of conversations about Risk Management. In the four virtual events, a panel of expert speakers will highlight lessons learned and best practices in risk prevention, mitigation, and management. This series will cover business, security, operational and technical risks. A particular emphasis will be on addressing risk in regulated industries that work with mission- and safety-critical applications. 

Starting on July 14, 2022, the series will cover four topics:

1. Current Issues in Risk Management
2. Security as Risk
3. Implementing FMEA in the Age of IoT
4. Embedding GAMP Compliance into Digital Health Software

Series details are enclosed.

Using SpiraPlan for Demand Management

May 25, 2022

We recently demonstrated SpiraPlan to a large, multinational life sciences manufacturing company. During the series of demonstrations and proof concepts, we configured SpiraPlan for a set of different use cases, including demand management, application portfolio management, vendor selection and management, change management, application decommissioning, configuration management, and supplier qualification. In this series of articles, we will be highlighting these different use cases and providing best practices and ideas for how to configure SpiraPlan. In this article we will be covering the topic of demand management.

Webinar Recap: The Automation of Requirements

March 30, 2022

On March 29th, Inflectra and partner Orca Intelligence hosted a webinar focused on The Automation of Requirements: Save Time Planning, Creating, and Managing Requirements with Swiftly and SpiraTeam. In this webinar, we covered:

• Solicitation Response

  • Work in SpiraTeam to build out a scope for solicitation and generate an estimate in Swiftly

• Agile Project Planning 

  • Plan in detail with SpiraTeam and automatically generate details with Swiftly 

• Agile Delivery Lifecycle Management 

  • Generate detailed user stories with Swiftly and SpiraTeam

  • Manage user stories through SpiraTeam.

If you missed the webinar, we have a full recap below.

Spotlight on SpiraPlan 7.0: FMEA Risk Management Comes To Town

January 27, 2022

As part of the upcoming release of Spira 7.0 in a few months' time, we have added a new plugin architecture that lets us add new specialty features and integrations more easily. In the future, it will also allow customers and partners to build extensions to Spira. We previously mentioned some of the planned plugins we have coming - GitHub, GitLab. In addition, we have a new plugin that will provide support for Failure Mode & Effects Analysis (FMEA) in the Risk Management module in SpiraPlan.

Best Practices for Handling Acceptance Criteria

January 10, 2022

We had a customer ask us what was the recommended way to manage the Acceptance Criteria of requirements in a project. There are actually several different ways you can handle acceptance criteria depending on your exact process (and preference):

1. You can simply add a custom Rich Text Description textbox to the Requirement artifact. That will appear underneath the main description.
2. You can use a requirement of type Acceptance criteria and make it a 'Has Steps' type so that you could enter the acceptance checklist as steps.
3. You create a .Feature file in the documents section and link to the requirement. That way you get the automated Gherkin syntax highlighting.
4. You can use a test case of type Acceptance Criteria and use the test steps.

We discuss each of these options below:

Spotlight on Spira 6.14 - Inline Editing on Gantt Charts

November 22, 2021

The next release of SpiraTeam and SpiraPlan includes some major enhancements for planning and managing waterfall and/or hybrid projects. We introduced the new Gantt chart views of Releases and Tasks in Spira v6.5 with the ability to simply view the Releases and Tasks as items in a read-only Gantt chart view. In the upcoming release, we have added inline editing capabilities, so you can edit Releases and Tasks in the Gantt chart views, and also edit the Releases in the Pert hierarchical view as well.

New Whitepaper - How To Choose A Risk Management Tool

November 1, 2021

Organizations exist to create value for their customers, shareholders, and stakeholders. Their survival depends on the impact of several known and unknown uncertainties emerging from many types of risks that challenge their ability to deliver value continuously. If you don’t manage risk, risk will manage you. The latter won’t be pleasant for your project.

Implementing Waterfall for Execution and Management Teams in SpiraPlan

July 21, 2021

Although businesses adopt agile practices to embrace change and respond to market needs, there is still a need for organizations to stay faithful to a set of principles and ideas that come from traditional waterfall project management. After all, if the good lessons learned from waterfall approaches, such as thinking of the milestones for payment terms, procuring resource commitments earlier to avoid delays in ongoing commitments, evaluating risks that challenge existing or future commitments, and technical architecture with scalability in design, are ignored, are we truly adaptive in strategic execution?

Use Case Mapping with SpiraTeam and SpiraPlan

July 15, 2021

A customer recently posed this question to us:

We are gathering requirements following a standard template for use cases. In that template we record main scenario and alternative flows like shown on the example below. What is the best way to map primary and alternate use case process flows to requirements inside Spira?

This is a relatively common question, so in this blog we outline some ways you can manage and map use cases inside Spira....

Webinar Recap: The 4th Industrial Revolution: Industry Trends Post COVID-19

July 7, 2021

On July 1st, Inflectra and Sriram Rajagopalan, Ph.D., hosted a webinar on the 4th Industrial Revolution: Industry Trends Post COVID-19, covering the following areas of interest:

1. Overview of the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR): cyber-physical systems and a transition past the 3rd Industrial Revolution 

2. Introduction to the Six Global Megatrends: globalization 2.0, technological convergence, a digital era of 4IR

3. Lessons learned from COVID-19: impact on industries and acceleration of trends 

4. The emergence of risk management as a cross-functional domain across all roles and products in the enterprise.

The webinar presentation, blog, and recording are enclosed here👇

Spira v.6 Getting Started Videos Are Here!

May 26, 2021

Welcome to your one-stop-shop for all Spira v6 Getting Started Videos! 

We are glad you are interested in learning the fundamentals of Inflectra’s QA, ALM, and Enterprise Agile Program Management platforms! This video playlist will help you to smoothly navigate our award-winning platforms, onboard your team members, as well as help you toward your Spira certification efforts under Inflectra's new Initiative called Spira Academy!

The below series of videos explores the most fundamental aspects of the three Spira platforms - SpiraTest, SpiraTeam, and SpiraPlan. The videos are divided into:

• the Cross-Cutting Spira features for all Spira products, 

• the SpiraTeam and SpiraPlan-only features. 

Begin your adventure with our Getting Started with Spira series’ below!

Webinar Recap: Spira v6.9 - OData, Baselining and Requirements Management

May 13, 2021

On May 12th, Inflectra hosted a webinar on Spira version 6.9 in which we covered the new and enhanced functionality, including:

• Enhanced Requirements Management Document Views

• New Odata functionality for SpiraPlan

• 99 Custom Properties

• Baselining enhancements for SpiraTeam and SpiraPlan. 

If you missed the webinar, we have a full for your cap below 👇

Spotlight on Spira 6.9 - Requirements Management Document View

April 15, 2021

It is widely agreed in the software industry that one of the keys to delivering high-quality products is to get the requirements "right." However, there is far less consensus on what "right" actually means and even less consensus on the best way to get there. So having powerful requirements management and requirements traceability is vitally important to the software development and testing process. In our latest version of SpiraTeam and SpiraPlan, we have improved the new requirements document view to make it more useful for business analysts (BAs) and other team members.

Spotlight on Spira 6.8 - Enhanced BDD and Gherkin Support

February 24, 2021

We are excited about the next release of Spira 6.8, due to be released in March. As we described in a recent blog post, this new version includes major enhancements to the documents management module to allow users the create and edit inline content directly in Spira. However this new feature also makes it amazing easy to write BDD style requirements and test cases in Spira using Gherkin syntax with automatic syntax highlighting. Intrigued, well read on...

Recap: Managing A Drug Development Lifecycle

February 19, 2021

On February 18, 2021, Inflectra's Sriram Rajagopalan, Ph.D., led a discussion on the An Emerging Role of Project Management in Drug Discovery and Supply Chain. If you missed the webinar, please enjoy this recap, complete with the video recording and the presentation. 

In this webinar, the presenter covered the following topics: 

• Key stages of drug management lifecycle 
• Responsibilities of Project and Program Management in the drug management lifecycle 
• Risk management and process guidance in the drug management lifecycle 
• How to apply Agile Thinking to the drug discovery lifecycle.

Spira for Non-Software Applications: Covid-19 Mask Testing | InflectraCon 2020 IRL

October 30, 2020

Our annual user conference - InflectraCon 2020: Agile Software Testing & DevOps Conference is in the rearview mirror. Today, we are proud to present the Inflectra In Real Life (IRL) talk by our partner sponsor - NVP Software Solutions, called Spira for Non-Software Applications: Covid-19 Mask Testing.

The session focuses on how Spira supports the testing of Covid-19 masks under varying conditions and the transit application.

Enjoy the recording below!

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. 

Spotlight on Spira 6.6 - Project Baselining Enhancements

August 7, 2020

One of the focus areas in the new release v6.6 of SpiraTeam and SpiraPlan is completing the initial support for baselining. This is an exciting new piece of functionality that makes SpiraTeam and SpiraPlan especially well suited for managing requirements, test cases and artifacts on more complex systems and engineering projects.

Spotlight on Spira 6.5.2 - Requirements and Test Case Baselining

July 6, 2020

One of the focus areas in the upcoming release v6.5.2 of SpiraTeam and SpiraPlan is support for baselining. This is an exciting new piece of functionality that will make SpiraTeam and SpiraPlan especially well suited for managing requirements, test cases and artifacts on more complex systems and engineering projects.

Blog: What’s the Problem with User Stories?

June 3, 2020

We are happy to share a blog post by Inflectra’s Director of Technology -  Adam Sandman called What’s the Problem with User Stories? published on TechWell Insights website. The blog explores key challenges associated with relying solely on user stories for requirements’ definition.

Webinar Recap: How To Easily Migrate from Micro Focus Toolset and Save Money

April 20, 2020

On April 17th, Inflectra's Adam Sandman headlined a live webinar called: How To Easily Migrate from MicroFocus and Save Money. 

If you missed the webinar, please enjoy this recap, complete with a video recording.

Webinar Agenda:

1. Features of SpiraPlan that outperform Micro Focus’ ALM tool
2. Rapise as a powerful alternative to UFT and LoadRunner in functional and performance testing
3. How SpiraPlan and Rapise offer you a more powerful, comprehensive, and cost-saving solution
4. The ease of migrating from Micro Focus to Inflectra’s Platform.

New Ways To Use Project Management Software for More Efficient Projects

April 1, 2020

Project management software has been around long enough that it’s fairly ubiquitous for businesses of all types. Teams from sales and marketing to manufacturing and software development use project management software to organize the myriad moving parts of business projects. But modern project management software doesn’t stop at tracking projects. Valuable features and reporting built right into today’s PM platforms make it easy for teams to use the software to help them build better processes, save time, and increase profitability across an organization.

Webinar recap: Spira v6.5 - Portfolios & Oauth Have Arrived

March 9, 2020

On March 5, 2020 Inflectra hosted a live webinar: Spira v6.5 - Portfolios & Oauth Have Arrived.

If you missed the webinar, here is a recap of the most important take-aways 👇:

Webinar Recap: Metrics in the Brand New World of Programs and Portfolios

March 3, 2020

On February 18, 2020 Inflectra and Sriram Rajagopalan hosted a live webinar: Scream For Scrum or Scream At Scrum: What’s Going On? 

If you missed the webinar, here is a recap of the webinar.

WEBINAR TAKEAWAYS:

• Learn how to establish the value of metrics in the program and portfolio
• Identify the most important principles around metrics
• Choose the metrics that need to be in place for programs and portfolios
• Apply and integrate metrics into agile and lean initiatives within programs.

The webinar recording is inside. 

Webinar Recap: Top Five Techniques for Managing Programs and Portfolios

February 14, 2020

On February 7, 2020 Inflectra and Sriram Rajagopalan hosted a live webinar: Top Five Techniques for Managing Programs and Portfolios.

If you missed the webinar, here is a recap of the most important take-aways:

Theory Behind Top 5 Techniques for Managing Programs and Portfolios

February 12, 2020

In the following article, Sriram Rajagopalan - Inflectra's Enterprise Agile Champion shares his thoughts and experience managing program and portfolios. 

This blog complements Inflectra's February 7th webinar on the same topic, with the webinar recording available inside.

Blog: How To Write Good User Stories

December 19, 2019

In the following blog post, Sriram Rajagopalan - Inflectra's Enterprise Agile Champion explores how-to's of writing good user stories and gives practical recommendations on how to achieve just that. This blog complements Inflectra's December 17th webinar on the same topic, with the webinar recording available inside.

Product Development Tools - The Top 10 Features

December 12, 2019

SpiraPlan is an easy to use, complete solution for managing your product development lifecycle. In this article we discuss the top 10 features you should look for in a product development tool, and why you should choose SpiraPlan over other tools on the market that offer features for product development.

Spotlight on SpiraPlan 6.2 - Risk Management Enhancements

August 20, 2019

As we get ready for the release of SpiraPlan 6.2 later this month, we'd like too introduce some of the new functionality that will be available in this release. In the third installment of this series, we're excited to announce some key enhancements to the risk management module in SpiraPlan. This new functionality extends the power of the risk management features and also better integrates them into the rest of the SpiraPlan platform.

Spotlight on SpiraTeam 6.2 - New Requirements Management Views

August 8, 2019

As we get ready for the release of SpiraTest, SpiraTeam, and SpiraPlan 6.2 later this month, we'd like too introduce some of the new functionality that will be available in this release. In the first installment of this series, we're excited to announce the new requirements management views that have been added to SpiraTeam and SpiraPlan 6.2. They are designed to better serve the needs of the Business Analyst community who often need different views of requirements than the project teams and project managers.

Some Tips and Tricks using Risk Management in SpiraPlan

June 20, 2019

The theme this month is Risk Management, with the new functionality available in SpiraPlan v6.0 as well as the article on Risk Management in Agile Initiatives from Dr. Sriram Rajagopalan that we features earlier in the week. In this article we discuss some important tricks and tips from one of our key partners - Peter Brackstone from Influence IT Consulting in Brisbane, Australia.

Webinar #Recap: 4 Key Elements of Inflectra's New Spira 6.0

May 24, 2019

On May 16, Inflectra hosted a webinar: 4 Key Elements of Inflectra's New Spira 6.0 to introduce the latest enhancements to the SpiraTest, SpiraPlan and SpiraTeam to its loyal customers as well as other interested parties. 

Some of you may have missed the webinar. that is why we are sharing the recording with you. 

Blog: Five Essentials To Requirements Management

February 28, 2019

The blog is produced in conjunction with Journey Into Agile With Inflectra - A Free Webinar Course.

The corporate business practices have evolved significantly. The products we develop are getting more complex and sophisticated. No longer are the software always having a graphical user interface for users, as wearable technologies and surgical implants transmitting updates to a mobile app are becoming commonplace. These emerging products, applications, and services will require identifying, gathering, and grooming requirements critical aspects of project management and product development.

Webinar Recap: Five Essentials to Managing Your Requirements with SpiraTeam®

February 28, 2019

On February 21, 2019, Inflectra and #SriramRajagopalan hosted a webinar on Five Essentials to Managing Your Requirements with SpiraTeam®. This is the 3rd 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.

Journey Into Agile With Inflectra - A Free Webinar Course

January 2, 2019

Inflectra and  #sriramrajagopalan are teaming up to bring you a free five-part online training course on agile project lifecycle management called: Journey Into Agile With Inflectra.

Product Management versus Project Management

December 24, 2018

As I was concluding a capstone class on project management, there was a question from a few students on whether there is any scope of career growth for project management as a profession with the increased focus on agile principles. Questioning further on the root cause of this concern was the fact that agile approaches, such as Scrum, does not call for a project manager role and the focus is only on product management. In a brief attempt to address this ongoing confusions thinking product and project management are mutually exclusive disciplines with product management slaying the project management field, I explain here the ongoing need for the symbiotic relationship between these two disciplines.

Why Executives Need to Understand Program & Project Management?

December 17, 2018

As a firm believer in continuous improvement, I have always been monitoring the external environment to find new trends and equip myself with this knowledge. One of these interests was understanding more about Program and Portfolio Management.

Preventing Scope Creep, Grope and Leap from Killing Your Projects!

December 11, 2018

One of the major reasons that software projects are cancelled, fail to deliver the expected value or experience massive cost / budget overruns is due to a failure to grasp the risk and issues associated with managing the scope. This article describes the three most common types of scope management failure with suggestions of how to avoid such a fate.

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.

Extend Your Project Management Strategy Beyond The Dev Team

July 5, 2018

When it comes to project management strategies, most people think of development teams.
Whether they’re focused software, websites, inventory, or any number of items, the intricacies of successfully developing a viable product require stringent tracking. There are many phases between brainstorming and product launch, most of which generally consist of numerous smaller tasks, which can be broken down into several more specific tasks. With so many hands in the honey pot, disorganization quickly leads to sticky situations.

This post, however, is not about development teams. It’s about introducing project management to the rest of your company to help clear up and prevent sticky situations.

The Top 10 Reasons Why SpiraTeam Is Better than JIRA for ALM

January 23, 2018

The Curse of the Middle Choice - Why SpiraTeam Has 4 Priorities

August 25, 2017

Customers sometimes ask us why we chose four priorities, severities and importance values in SpiraTeam. Now you can of course customize the system to change the priorities and severities but this article explains why we chose four and why you might want to keep them.

Spotlight on SpiraTest 5.3 - Data Driven Testing with Test Configurations

July 31, 2017

We are busy bees this summer, and one of the most exciting new features of SpiraTest (and SpiraTeam, of course) is a better support for data-driven testing with the new test configurations functionality. We are adding support for test configurations that will let you create a data-set of possible testing configurations (e.g. 5 browsers, 4 operating systems, 10 logins = 200 possible combinations) and run your test sets through the different combinations with ease. This will be available for both manual and automated testing.

Recording of Agile Project Management Webinar using SpiraPlan

July 21, 2017

Many of our customers choose SpiraPlan or SpiraTeam because they are using agile methodologies such as Scrum or Kanban and need a powerful tool to manage their project backlogs, releases, sprints, iterations and programs. They are often using different tools for planning, bug tracking and requirements which hampers the ability to see the status of their project in one place.

Tip of the Day: The Best Way to Assign Test Cases to Your Testers

July 6, 2017

One of the questions we get asked a lot by new users of SpiraTest is:

What is the best way to assign test cases to my users so that they can do their testing?

This article discusses the different options and provides the best solutions for your situation.

The Top 10 Reasons You Should Switch from HP QualityCenter

May 9, 2017

With the recent news about HPE selling its software portfolio to Micro Focus, and the herd of former HP customers trying out SpiraTest to see what alternatives they have, we thought it would be a good idea to see how SpiraTest compares against HP QualityCenter (and its predecessor TestDirector).

The Top 10 Reasons You Should Switch from HP ALM

May 2, 2017

With the recent news about HPE selling its software portfolio to Micro Focus, and the herd of former HP customers trying out SpiraTeam to see what alternatives they have, we thought it would be a good idea to see how SpiraTeam compares against HP ALM.

Going the Extra Mile with SpiraTest v5.2

March 15, 2017

Over the years, we have received countless requests to introduce a feature allowing users to "hand-off" a test run that is already in progress from one tester to another. This lets person A do some testing and then dynamically hand it over to person B who can finish off the test run. In the current version (5.1) you have to start a new test execution. Well now.... despite us telling customers that this feature would probably not be included in Spiratest v5.2, we have some good news and some better news:

Management Debt: The Costs of Non-delivery and Non-conformance

February 7, 2017

The principles of lean have always focused on maximizing the value delivery. In fact, the Japanese term Muda (Arnheiter & Maleyeff, 2005) refers to the seven different types of wastes that one should remove. In this guest post from our agile transformation partner Sriram Rajagopalan, we discuss the types of waste that can be eliminated using a Lean methodology, and the role of Management Debt in perpetuating wasteful practices.

Spira 5.1 - Cross Project Associations

November 3, 2016

One of the key new features is that you can share artifacts between different projects. This is useful for customers that have projects in Spira that contain requirements for core components that can be reused by other projects that are composed of those core components.

We Need More Process and Less Pain

October 6, 2016

I had an interesting discussion with a prospective client last week - they were using another planning tool (Microsoft TFS) and were looking for a tool that would give them a more structured process, but had an easier to use, less painful UI.

Enterprise Lifecycle Management - From ALM to ELM

August 30, 2016

The disciplines of PLM and ALM are increasingly entwined together with the rise of smart consumer devices as well as Internet-enabled industrial systems. Managers need to be able to plan their entire lifecycle, both products and applications. We see a convergence into “Enterprise Lifecycle Management” or ELM in the same way that Manufacturing, Supply Chain and Accounting converged into ERP.

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.

Why Did We Change How Folders Work?

June 3, 2016

We are really excited with the launch of SpiraTeam 5.0 this week. SpiraTeam 5 brings a lot of new features, new design, and also lots of changes from version 4.2. Over the next few weeks we will be posting a number of articles to explain the biggest changes. This post discusses how folders for test cases, test sets, documents and tasks have been reworked for a more consistent and better customer experience.

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!

To Diagram or Not to Diagram?

February 5, 2016

Some people think in fully-formed and eloquent prose (like Supreme Court Justices). The rest of us either think in shorter-form lists and phrases, or visually with pictures. We want to know if our users would benefit from richer integration and use of visual tools and diagrams in SpiraTeam.

Anatomy of an Automated Test Case

February 4, 2016

When test cases are written well, the automation follows simply from the steps. Writing a good test case isn’t difficult, it’s just tedious, boring and sometimes downright painful. But when it’s done right, the results are worth it.

Customer Concept for SpiraTest 5 Test Execution

January 29, 2016

We've shared two sets of mockups for revisions to test execution. This has generated great ideas from many of our customers. We want to share a concept from a customer on how one of the views for test execution could look in SpiraTest 5.

SpiraTest 5 Revised Designs for Test Execution

January 25, 2016

Last week we published mockups for a revised test execution page in SpiraTest. We asked for your feedback and got lots of insightful and useful suggestions. Based on what we heard we have published a second round of mockups for you to look at.
Read More

SpiraTest 5 Design Ideas for Test Execution

January 14, 2016

Our designers have come up with a set of prototypes for the test execution page in the next version of SpiraTest 5 to address feedback and usability issues we have identified over the past 5 years. We need your feedback to make sure we're on the right track...

Spira 5.0 - Releases that Roll Up

November 25, 2015

We often think of a release as a simple idea, you have a new version (say 1.0) of a product and you plan on releasing it on a specific date. You might then divide up that release into either iterations or sprints if you're using an agile approach or perhaps phases if using a waterfall one. You then want to be able to report at the project, release and iteration level. Well after much feedback from customers, we found that customers need more than that...

The Value of Face Time?

November 13, 2015

We recently had our development and testing team for Rapise come together for a collaborative planning section. Our company is based in Silver Spring, a suburb of Washington, DC but we have team members working remotely in other countries as well. The occasion made us think about the benefits and limitations of modern collaboration tools.

Are You Testing in the Right Direction?

October 29, 2015

One Throat to Choke - Why We Only Allow One Owner

August 11, 2015

People often email us to ask if it is possible to have more than one owner in SpiraTeam when assigning a requirement, test case, incident or task. They also often ask us why we named the field 'owner' rather than 'assignee'. Well these two decisions were actually thoughtfully made and not just at random.

20 Tips for Effective Requirements Elicitation

July 3, 2015

Requirements Elicitation is the act of teasing the true needs from users and other stakeholders, including most departments in the development organization such as sales and training. Elicitation is not simply gathering: gathering is a passive action, whereas elicitation is proactive. This article provides some tips on how to best elicit them. Read More

An Introduction to Task Boards

July 2, 2015

The Task Board is perhaps the single most useful device that can be used on Agile projects and is the focal point for the stand-up meeting or Scrum. Typically, a Task Board displays only information pertinent to the current sprint and will be cleared off before the next sprint begins. Read More

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

Agile Project Management with SpiraPlan & SpiraTeam

May 25, 2015

Are you planning on moving to an agile methodology such as Scrum or Kanban? Are you already using agile methods but need a better way to scale your process? This article explains how SpiraPlan and SpiraTeam can help you better plan, estimate and manage your agile projects. Read More

Can Use Cases Replace User Stories?

May 20, 2015

User Stories are often characterized by relatively short, uncomplicated and informal descriptions, whereas Use Cases are often longer, more formally structured descriptions of not only the user need but also other details. Can Use Cases strike a balance between the need for agility and the need for more information, and if so, how?

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

Testing Tool Interview: SpiraTest (QA TestingTools.Com)

May 12, 2015

Finding the best test management solution for your needs can be a tough task for organizations at times. With a variety of tools heading neck-to-neck in the market, a Quality and Test Management software to support your quality assurance, application security, and performance validation can lead to a lot of confusion. Read More

Beyond the Document Paradigm – part 2

May 7, 2015

When making the transition from document-oriented information storage to record-oriented information management tools, there are a number of problems which can make the process difficult, or even unsuccessful. This second part of our series explains how such pitfalls can occur. Read More

Beyond the Document Paradigm – Part 1

May 5, 2015

Have you ever tried to write a letter in a spreadsheet? Ridiculous idea, right? Or perhaps you’ve tried to do the opposite and store discrete, record-oriented information in a word processor? It can be done using tables, but it’s easier with a spreadsheet. 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

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

An Introduction to Task Boards

October 7, 2014

The Task Board is perhaps the single most useful device that can be used on Agile projects and is the focal point for the stand-up meeting or Scrum. Typically, a Task Board displays only information pertinent to the current sprint and will be cleared off before the next sprint begins. Read More

Agile Myths - Part 3

September 9, 2014

In this item we continue our examination of various Agile methodology ideas and ask whether they are valid or whether they are in fact, industry myths. Read More

Tips for Effective Requirements Management

September 4, 2014

It is a month till release, and the CEO comes out of the office and says we need a new feature for the release. A week later he modifies the new feature. The developer works hard to please him and delivers, but he doesn't like it. The requirement changes again and now we are a few days from release. how are we going to debug, test, and verify for release if things keep changing? Read More

Agile Myths - Part 2

September 2, 2014

In this item we continue our examination of various Agile methodology ideas and ask whether they are valid or whether they are in fact, industry myths. 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

Agile Myths - Part 1

August 19, 2014

The enthusiasm these days for Agile development is rightly deserved, but with so much being written and said about Agile development, there should be room for healthy debate. While Agile development has proven to be a huge step forward and the right approach for many projects, it is important to continue to ask questions in order that we don’t start to endorse the bad along with the good. We don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater, but we can’t keep the bathwater just to avoid the risk of doing so. An occasional examination of principles being promoted and used within the industry helps to maintain Agile methods as the best alternative to traditional development practices for many projects.

In this series of blog postings we shall discuss some of the characteristics of various Agile methodologies and ask whether the ideas are valid or whether they are in fact, industry myths.

Requirements Sign-Off

August 12, 2014

SpiraTeam v4.1 introduced a new feature allowing you to create requirement workflows. This feature allows you to create a workflow that models your signoff process. The question that begs is - what should my requirements signoff process look like...

The Defect-Requirements-Test Triangle

July 15, 2014

It is quite a popular notion that there should be formally recorded associations or links between defects and software code configuration items. This can explain why a piece of code has later been modified and also helps individuals find their way back to the ‘fix’ should the defect be found to still exist upon re-testing. But there are other ways to achieve this and so the question is: can the relationship between the defect and the code really be the most important one? Read More

Fired for Saving the Release

July 10, 2014

I knew a QA director, this was a dedicated guy. He worked day and night to make sure they released quality code to their customers. He understood the value of QA on making a company shine. The company had a scheduled release on Monday; it was major and had been promised. This guy worked all weekend to QA the new release and found several stopper defects - Severity 1, the really bad kind! Read More

Is Agile Product Management Dead?

July 8, 2014

The Product Manager role (unlike that of the project manager) is arguably the least well understood of all the software project development disciplines and varies greatly in definition and implementation from one organization to another. This blog discusses how the role of the product manager has been changed by the move to agile methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban. Read More

How to Choose a Test Management Tool

June 4, 2014

While it might seem that the most important consideration when choosing a test management software tool is the set of basic tool features supporting the test process itself, you should not neglect a wide range of other questions that could make or break your test management tool choice. This whitepaper identifies the key attributes you should look for in a test management solution. Read More

The Software Chicken and the Egg

April 16, 2014

For a considerable period of time, we did well organized testing, but not against requirements that were formally defined.
Why was it deemed necessary to automate the test management process before there were any decent tools for recording exactly what we were testing for? Read More

Beware the Over-Engineered Software Product

April 8, 2014

When evaluating software features to either build or buy there is a tendency to want to have every possible feature even if it will be rarely (or event never used) on the off-chance that it could be useful. This post describes some of the pitfalls with this approach. Read More

Documenting Requirements in Agile Projects

April 1, 2014

(aka The Changing Role of the Modern Father)

One of the difficulties of moving from waterfall to an Agile development process is the breaking down of silos of responsibility, including that of the product owner. No longer the deliverer of the requirements 'master-specification', the product owner now participates throughout the entire process, sharing the requirements management task and taking on new, varied and, sometimes unexpected, responsibilities.

Principles of Requirements Engineering (or Requirements 101)

March 11, 2014

Requirements Engineering (RE) is often trivialized as an activity performed by well meaning analysts before they start doing the real work of specifying a product. This whitepaper introduces the critical processes and procedures used when executing effective Requirements Engineering as part of an overall successful project. Read More

10 Questions You Should Ask When Choosing a Tool for Requirements Management

February 24, 2014

If you are looking for a requirements management tool, you probably don't need to be told how important requirements management is. There are a number of standard questions to be asked when selecting any software product for your organization. Read More

Losing Data Wasn't One of the Requirements....? Oops!

February 11, 2014

Library users who spent many hours, perhaps over many years, saving their favorite titles for future reading enjoyment, suddenly found that after the upgrade of the Washington, DC library catalog system, all their favorites were gone. Vanished. Not a trace!