Perforce Helix ALM Integrates Requirements, Test, and Issue Management
Perforce’s Helix ALM is an integrated suite of modules that centralizes and manages delivery artifacts (e.g. requirements, test cases, and issues). This suite includes Helix RM (requirements management), Helix IM (issue management), and Helix TCM (test case management). In September 2017, Perforce acquired Hansoft, an enterprise Agile planning tool.
Helix ALM has a number of notable strengths:
- The suite’s design allows users to enable and use each module independently, allowing users to grow into Helix ALM at their own pace. Integration among each module is seamless.
- Reported issues can be traced back to the original requirements and test cases.
- Technical support has a global presence to better support its customers in each time zone.
- Significant focus is placed to cultivate strong relationships with technology partners to extend Helix ALM value and services. Tools or plugins are available to enable integration and collaboration with third-party and open-source tools.
The recent Helix ALM 2019.4.0 release focused on increasing end-user productivity, improving integration and import/export capabilities, enhancing project visibility within the Helix ALM workflow, and addressing reported bugs and vulnerabilities, such as:
- Download matrix, distribution, list, and trend reports to a Microsoft Excel file for further analysis
- Change multiple fields in multiple items at the same time by bulk-changing fields (Web)
- Pie charts in dashboards and live charts now show passed test runs in green and failed test runs in red (test case management)
- Import Microsoft Word documents to add requirements documents and requirements to Helix ALM projects (requirements management – Web)
However, users will still need to overcome several challenges:
- Artifact traceability and delivery progress can only be viewed and assessed within a single project instance.
- Helix ALM workflow configurations require users to define the states and events in each project for each module due to a lack of a holistic workflow editor.
- A third-party tool is required to perform requirements modeling.
Our Take
Helix ALM’s modular structure allows organizations the flexibility to license only the modules they need now and add others later. This suite can be attractive to organizations that are looking to experiment with third-party and open-source tools but still retain the value of a comprehensive ALM solution.