OpenText ALM
| Company type | Proprietary software |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software |
| Predecessor | Hewlett-Packard, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Micro Focus |
| Products | Application lifecycle management software suite including requirements management, test planning, functional testing, performance testing (Performance Center), defect tracking |
| Owner | OpenText |
OpenText ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) is a proprietary software solution designed to facilitate application development and lifecycle management by providing tools for planning, development, testing, deployment, and ongoing maintenance. Initially created by Hewlett-Packard, the product later transitioned under the stewardship of Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Micro Focus, and is currently offered by OpenText.
This suite encompasses various modules including requirements management, test planning, functional testing, and software performance testing through Performance Center. It also supports developer oversight via integration with platforms such as Collabnet, TeamForge, and Microsoft Visual Studio, alongside comprehensive defect tracking capabilities.
OpenText ALM delivers a unified platform combining essential applications and a centralized dashboard to oversee the entire application lifecycle—from initial design through delivery and operational phases. It streamlines key lifecycle processes using an integrated workflow, project monitoring, and planning framework built on a consistent data repository with an open integration architecture facilitated by an SDK.
Targeted at IT organizations, OpenText ALM consolidates application governance to automate workflows across multiple teams within a single process, thereby improving collaboration throughout the development cycle.
Project planning and tracking
The suite provides tools for project planning and progress tracking, enabling development teams to establish, follow, and report on milestones and critical performance indicators.
Application lifecycle intelligence
Offers immediate traceability between requirements and defects in real time.
Lab management automation
Supports test teams in provisioning and managing test environments across hybrid infrastructures—whether bare-metal, virtualized, on-premises, or cloud-based—through integration with Continuous Delivery Automation (CDA).
Asset sharing and re-use
Facilitates the creation of shared asset libraries that can be reused across multiple projects while maintaining traceability. Projects can implement tailored modifications without compromising the library’s integrity and can synchronize changes as necessary. It also supports defect collaboration across projects.
Cross-project reporting
Provides enterprise-wide reporting capabilities with predefined business views that aggregate project status, application quality metrics, requirements coverage, and defect trends for both individual projects and overall releases.
Enterprise Collaboration
The HP Enterprise Collaboration feature integrates social media functionalities within ALM to enhance team communication by allowing users to import relevant items such as defects, incidents, or reports for discussion and feedback.
Performance and load testing
OpenText LoadRunner Enterprise (previously known as Performance Center) serves as a performance testing platform enabling IT teams to standardize, centralize, and execute performance tests while leveraging previous test scenarios. Although it was integrated with ALM up to version 12.6x, it now functions as a separate product.
Quality assurance
ALM incorporates quality assurance capabilities including risk-based test planning, version control, baselining, release and cycle oversight, test scheduling, manual test integration, and defect tracking.
OpenText Quality Center acts as a quality management solution designed to oversee application quality across one or several IT projects. It offers functionalities such as requirements management, release and cycle administration, test and defect handling, alongside consolidated reporting within a single platform.
Definition and oversight of requirements
Application Lifecycle Management assists IT teams in documenting, controlling, and monitoring requirements throughout the entire software development and testing phases.
Enhance security
Fortify security solutions provide tools for application protection, including dynamic testing of web applications and static analysis of source code. This software integrates seamlessly with ALM to facilitate secure software delivery.
Support for multiple environments
ALM is offered both as an on-premises installation and as a cloud-hosted software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. Additionally, it allows mobile accessibility via Apple iPhone and Android devices.