Because it's easy to show how Helix TCM adds value, it's easy to evangelize to the company.At the time of the experiment, we had five projects inside Helix TCM, and now we easily have 60 or 70 projects. We definitely see the benefit of using Helix TCM.
VOO Telecom, an internet, telephony, and television service provider, needed to unite their IT and technical departments. Perforce ALM met the needs of both.
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Why VOO Telecom Expanded Their Use of Helix TCM
- Easier to use than competitors
- Capability for huge tests
- Isolates sets of functionality with requirements
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Transcending Departmental Barriers
Geoffrey Zanelli became VOO's new testing manager in the technical department. He faced a conundrum. The technical department used Microsoft Word and Excel for test cases and test case management. But IT used Microsoft SharePoint.
Both departments felt hindered by testing with these tools.
Zanelli decided to explore the possibilities. When faced with Helix TCM’s potential as a robust and structured test management system, he saw wider-reaching benefits.
Zanelli decided it was time for an experiment.
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The Experiment: Extending Helix TCM to Both IT and Technical Departments
A mobile development project involving the technical and IT groups was ramping up. Zanelli decided it would be a perfect time to experiment using Helix TCM.
Zanelli and the IT department committed to documenting all their tests and related items in Helix TCM. The plan was to use it exclusively and exhaustively, to get the fullest possible measure of the tool's flexibility.
The IT department found that continuing a project release by release and reusing a set of tests was easier with Helix TCM than with SharePoint.
With this realization, the IT department began to use Helix TCM intensively. They now use it to develop their own release template and their own reporting. They also use Helix TCM for release validations.
“They believe it's easier to create status reports and plan regression testing with Helix TCM over SharePoint. It reduces the effort of testing and improves testing coverage at the same time,” says Zanelli.
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An Entire Suite of Support
It’s not just Helix TCM making a difference for VOO. Perforce ALM helps them work with outside suppliers. For the development department, much is dictated by the processes used by their suppliers.
“The supplier's process is made of drops, which are kind of like Agile sprints, but take longer than six weeks. The Perforce ALM suite makes it easy to work with drops because we can isolate sets of functionality with requirements,” explains Zanelli.
Zanelli found that folders are important for regression testing and organizing testing, as well as for organizing drops. Helix Requirements Management (Helix RM) with TCM allows his team to isolate test islands by requirements. And Helix Issue Management (Helix IM) is used for bug reviews with outside suppliers.
“Perforce ALM is seen as a real asset by everyone,” adds Zanelli.
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Word Has Gotten Out
Where do you go after uniting the IT and technical departments on a common test management tool? Onward and upward, of course.
Word spread about Perforce ALM’s strong reputation. Zanelli showed his global group IT department the tool, and they immediately recognized it as a good way to organize tests and to be more efficient with regular deployments.
"Because it's easy to show how Perforce ALM adds value, it's easy to evangelize to the company,” says Zanelli. “At the time of the experiment, we had five projects inside Perforce ALM, and now we easily have 60 or 70 projects. We definitely see the benefit of using Perforce ALM.”