What is OpenText (Micro Focus)?
OpenText, which acquired Micro Focus in 2023, is a global leader in enterprise information management solutions. Before this, Micro Focus was a major player in the software industry, known for providing enterprise-grade solutions across a wide range of sectors. They focused primarily on legacy modernisation, application management, and IT operations, supporting companies in maintaining, updating, and enhancing their ageing infrastructure and applications.Ā
Micro Focus’ flagship products included Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) for managing the software development process, Unified Functional Testing (UFT) for automating functional and regression tests, and LoadRunner for performance testing. They were known for their expertise in helping companies transition from legacy systems to modern platforms without losing critical functionality.
Micro Focus was also known for offering solutions that supported large, complex environments, which made it a popular choice for enterprises with sprawling IT infrastructures. However, a broad approach often leads to subpar quality in different features and functionalities. So there is a lot of criticism around the complexity of its solutions, especially for teams that require more agility and flexibility in their workflows.
After the acquisition by OpenText, the collaboration aims to create a more comprehensive platform for managing both structured and unstructured data, software development, and IT operations.
āMicro Focus ALM used to be a great and highly customisable testing tool but has accumulated a huge technical debt over the years. The web version is going in the right direction, but functionalities are still limited.ā
However, for many users, this also raises concernsādoes a broader range of services come at the cost of simplicity and efficiency for QA teams? In the review, we will generally focus on OpenText (Micro Focus) TMS, and not analyse every single solution this collab offers.Ā
How does OpenText (Micro Focus) work?
Micro Focus Test Management System (TMS) is designed to help you plan, manage, and track the testing process. It allows QA teams to create detailed test cases, manage test execution, track defects, and ensure full traceability from requirements to release. This TMS integrates seamlessly with automated testing tools like Unified Functional Testing (UFT) and LoadRunner. This helps ensure manual and automated tests are tracked and managed in one centralised platform.
The TMS is built to handle complex, large-scale projects, offering customisable workflows and comprehensive reporting to meet the needs of enterprises. However, this depth comes with a learning curve. Setting up and managing the system can be time-consuming, especially for teams that require more agility. Despite its wide range of capabilities, the systemās complexity will not always align with your fast-moving needs, especially if you seek more streamlined, flexible solutions.
Who uses OpenText (Micro Focus)?
OpenText (Micro Focus) is used primarily by large enterprises and organisations with complex IT infrastructures. Its tools are popular in sectors such as finance, healthcare, government, telecommunications, and manufacturing. These industries rely on OpenText’s Test Management Systems (TMS), Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), and IT operations tools to manage extensive testing processes, support legacy systems, and ensure compliance with strict regulatory standards. AsĀ
While OpenText is widely used in enterprise settings, its complexity and steep learning curve can be a challenge for smaller, more agile teams.
Enough of theoretical and general talk, right? Letās break the solution down to features and see where it all falls apart.
Micro Focus Features
Micro Focus (OpenText) delivers a broad range of features across its software testing tools, especially in functional and regression testing. The solutions support various testing needs, including automation, AI-driven enhancements, and integrations with CI/CD pipelines.
Test Management with Micro Focus (OpenText)
Micro Focus (OpenText) delivers a robust test management system designed to handle various testing workflows, from test case creation to execution tracking. It offers most of the essential features that a team needs to manage testing processes at scale, including test case management, reporting, and defect tracking. Here is the list of what Micro Focus allows you to do in terms of test management:
- Test Cases and Scenarios: Manage comprehensive test cases and scenarios, allowing users to create structured tests to validate different system behaviours.
- Test Reporting and Execution History: Generate detailed test reports and track execution history to understand trends and test effectiveness over time.
- Bulk Edits and Filters: Easily perform bulk edits to streamline updates across multiple test cases and use filters to organize and manage large test suites.
- Custom Fields and Parametrisation: Adapt test cases with custom fields to fit specific project needs and leverage parameterization to reuse test scripts with varying data inputs.
- Release Planning and Workflows: Plan test activities in sync with release cycles, with customisable workflows that fit your team’s process.
- Folders, Views, and Shared Views: Organise test artefacts with folders and views. Shared views ensure team members can access relevant tests or data across departments.
However, there are some limitations. For example, the absence of nested test cases, item change history, and the ability to reverse changes will make you feel like your test management efforts are incomplete. Now imagine having a solution that gives you all the features mentioned above, but does not stop there. aqua cloud is that solution. Being the ultimate test management system, (and an enterprise solution serving customers like Google, TechnMahindra, Canyon, etc) aqua gives you a central repository for all your testing efforts, whether manual or automated. Additionally, aqua offers unique features like mentions for easy collaboration and manual email nudging to remind team members about pending tasks. So whatās keeping you from trying this solution out?
Maximise your test management efforts with a 100% AI-powered solution
AI-Driven Test Case Management
Micro Focus stands out with its AI-powered capabilities, such as UFT Oneās AI-driven test management. With this feature, you can streamline test creation by automatically identifying UI elements across platforms, making automation smarter and faster.
Specific AI-based capabilities include:
- AI-powered object recognition: Automates the identification of elements within tests, reducing manual effort.
- AI-assisted test case creation: Uses machine learning to optimise test creation and execution strategies.
Micro Focus provides modern features, but its AI-driven automation is only integrated into UFT One. For broader solutions, more advanced AI applications are limited compared to newer platforms focused entirely on AI-driven workflows.
That is where we want to introduce aqua cloud. Being the first solution that brought AI to the QA industry, aqua is your ally with generative AI. Here is what aquaās magnificent AI assistant does:
- AI-generated requirements: Say a word or use a written sentence, and aquaās AI will generate the complete requirement from scratch.
- Test cases generated in under a minute: No manual work, aquaās AI will deliver the complete test case in just a few seconds, saving you 97% of your time compared to manual work.
- Synthetic test data generation: Need test data to back up your test cases? aqua does that too, giving you huge chunks of test data based on your insights.Ā
Thatās what you need; 3 clicks for the entire automation of requirements, test cases, and test data generation. The difference? You donāt need to be a huge enterprise to access these modern features; aqua makes it a reality for teams of all sizes.
Leverage 100% AI-powered TMS even if you are not an enterprise
Micro Focus Test Data Management and Parallel Execution
Micro Focus provides comprehensive support for managing test data. This ensures that your testing scenarios are accurate and reflective of real-world environments.
Highlights in test data management include:
- Data-driven testing: Allows reuse of test scripts across multiple datasets.
- Parallel test execution: Execute several tests simultaneously, saving time while maintaining coverage.
The parallel test execution is handled smoothly across platforms. However, it can lack the more modern parallel test orchestration seen in tools entirely built for the cloud.
Micro Focus Integrations
Micro Focus tools integrate with many CI/CD platforms, including Jenkins, Azure DevOps, and GitHub, ensuring a smooth DevOps pipeline. This makes it easy to incorporate testing early and often in the software development lifecycle.
Key integration features:
- Built-in support for popular CI/CD tools: You can sync testing workflows seamlessly with Jenkins, GitHub, and other platforms.
- Custom API integrations: Allows for creating custom workflows and integrations via open APIs.
- On-prem and cloud-based execution: You can choose between cloud-based or on-prem test execution, depending on your infrastructure.
Setting up these integrations can take more time compared to tools designed natively for cloud-based CI/CD. However, the flexibility offered by Micro Focus’s suite is still extensive.
Micro Focus Defect and Bug Tracking
Micro Focus supports integrations with leading defect-tracking tools like Jira, Azure DevOps, and ALM. These connections ensure you can report and track any defects found during testing automatically.
Hereās how Micro Focus helps with defect tracking:
- Jira and ALM integrations: Link test failures directly to bugs in defect-tracking tools.
- Traceability: Track defects from detection to resolution, ensuring full transparency in the process.
- Manual and automated defect creation: Allows both manual entry and automatic defect logging based on test results.
However, Micro Focus doesnāt have an internal bug-tracking system, meaning youāll need to rely on external solutions for comprehensive defect management.
That is where we bring aqua cloud back to the discussion. aqua delivers everything mentioned above AND gives you a native Capture integration for better defect management. What makes this integration unique is that you can record your bugs with a single click and easily include these visually stunning records in your defect management efforts. With its 100% traceability and visibility, aqua also makes sure you can track every single defect to its detection and have full transparency over your process. Ready to enjoy the ultimate bug-tracking experience?
Do not only rely on third-party tools; have a complete bug tracking framework
Micro Focus Support
Micro Focus, now a part of OpenText, offers reliable support for their products, though some users have reported longer response times. Considering support is the most significant factor determining the user experience, this creates a negative reputation over time. After all, what you need is fast response times and shorter time-to-fix for the issues you reported.
You can see some of the frustrations noted by the users on different platforms:
On a side note, it would not happen with aqua cloud, where we specifically take care of every concern raised by you; in under 2 hours also. Bringing the German precision and quality to the table, your tickets will be resolved as soon as possible, but you will never get ignored. We know how frustrating support tickets can be especially when waiting for a response for days, but in aqua, it is never more than a day. We take care of you so you can take care of your testing efforts much more effortlessly.
Get answers in less than 2 hours for every support ticket you raise
Micro Focus (OpenText) User Management
Micro Focus (OpenText) offers robust user management features essential for large organisations. These include default and custom roles along with comprehensive permission settings. The flexibility allows customised access based on project sensitivity and team member experience. You can ensure that sensitive projects are handled appropriately. However, with Micro Focus, you can not assign individual permissions on a per-user basis, which can limit your control over user access. In contrast, aqua provides this enhanced granularity, allowing you to fine-tune permissions for each user, further strengthening security and project management.
Micro Focus Reporting
When it comes to reporting, OpenText (Micro Focus) offers solid features to help you analyse your test processes. You can easily generate test reports that give you insights into your project’s progress and performance. The execution history allows you to track test results over time, helping you identify trends and areas for improvement.
With customisable dashboards, you can visualise your data in a way that makes sense for your team. This helps you make informed decisions based on real-time information. However, one notable limitation is the lack of more advanced reporting capabilities like custom layouts, drag and drop, and custom bands. Also, you can not include pivot tables, parameterisation, and scripts in your reporting with OpenText, which limits you on your path to creating the ultimate reports.Ā
Wonder which solution provides all of the features Micro Focus lacks? You guessed it right: of course, aqua cloud.
Micro Focus Pricing
Micro Focus has traditionally been one of the more expensive options in the test management and ALM market. The company has recently transitioned its offerings to OpenText ALM Octane, which is now part of a custom pricing model.Ā
While specific pricing details are not publicly available, potential customers are encouraged to reach out for a quote that reflects their unique requirements. Although this move aims to enhance accessibility for various organisations, you will still see reviews like this on the web:
This means no matter which pricing structure they move, OpenText (Micro Focus) will remain one of the most expensive solutions in the market. Unless you are looking for an enterprise solution, Micro Focus will remain out of reach for you.Ā
Micro Focus pros and cons
To wrap it up, we can group the pros and cons of using Micro Focus as your TMS like this:
Pros
- Comprehensive Test Management: You get a wide range of tools for different types of testing, making it easier to manage your projects.
- AI-Powered Features: Micro Focus includes AI-driven capabilities that help enhance your testing processes and increase efficiency.
- Automation Support: It supports automation through tools like UFT, which can speed up your testing efforts.
- DevOps Integration: You can easily integrate Micro Focus with various DevOps tools, supporting continuous testing in your workflow.
Cons
- Complex User Interface: The interface is hard to navigate, making it tough for new users to adapt quickly.
- High Cost: The pricing is too high for smaller teams or companies with limited budgets.
- Limited Reporting Features: It does not have some of the modern features that newer tools offer, like native integration, items, custom layouts, etc.
- Integration Issues: You will face challenges when trying to connect Micro Focus with other software, disrupting your workflow.
- Slow Performance: The tools can be resource-heavy, which slows down your system during testing.
- Customer Support Problems: Users often report slow response times from customer support, which can be frustrating when you need help.
- Outdated Documentation: The never-stopping changes around the solution also result in documentation not being up to date, making it harder for you to fully utilise and understand the solution.
As we did throughout the article, letās also look at what people say about Micro Focus one more time.
OpenText (Micro Focus) Reviews
Here is what people say about OpenText (Micro Focus):
āMy overall experience with ALM has been good; it has evolved over the years to include nearly all the features you might need and offers strong integration capabilities, but the high pricing tends to discourage many customers, especially with lower-cost alternatives available.ā
āItās a quality tool that excels in non-agile environments, with a well-organized functionality for traceability across release phases. However, it struggles to adapt to Agile development, requiring significant effort to align with Agile sprints and releases.ā
āGreat selection of modules; limited artefact creation capabilities.ā
āFrom a user perspective, the application is stable, but UI is outdated.ā
As you can see, it has its own strengths and weaknesses. If these weaknesses are too much for you, or if you already experienced them and want to find a better solution, we are giving you a list of alternatives too.
Micro Focus Alternatives
Looking for less pricey, more functional, more modern and robust Micro Focus alternatives? We have got you covered:
- aqua cloud is your most sensible option, excelling at what Micro Focus ALM often struggles with. Being the first TMS to integrate AI into QA processes, it offers you the generation of requirements, test cases, and test data within just three clicks. With 100% traceability and seamless integration with tools like Jira, UnixShell, PowerShell, and Azure DevOps, aqua ensures a well-rounded test management experience. Its native integration with the screen-recording tool Capture enhances visual bug tracking. Aiming to take away the pain of testing, aqua’s customisable reporting and exceptional, timely support further distinguish it from competitors. Remember: aqua delivers all these while maintaining accessibility to teams of all sizes.
Pay less, get more, benefit from 200% automation and manage 100% of your testing efforts
2. TestLink is a popular open-source test management tool that is often overlooked. It provides basic test case management features and is highly customizable, making it suitable for teams with specific needs. However, it lacks advanced reporting capabilities and integrations, which can limit its functionality for larger projects.
3. Katalon Studio is a versatile tool that combines both automation and manual testing capabilities. Itās particularly favoured for its user-friendly interface, making it accessible for teams with varying technical expertise. On the downside, while Katalon offers robust features, it requires significant resources for setup and maintenance.
4. Bugzilla is an underrated issue-tracking tool that helps teams manage defects effectively. It is open-source and customisable, which is beneficial for teams looking for a tailored solution. However, its interface feels outdated compared to modern tools, which is not good for user adoption.
Conclusion
In conclusion, while Micro Focus ALM has established itself as a solid choice for enterprise-level test management, aqua cloud stands out as a more accessible and cost-effective alternative. aqua not only integrates AI to enhance your testing processes but also offers features that deliver exceptional value for teams of all sizes. With aqua, you can achieve more without the shiny price tag, meaning you maximise your testing efficiency without stretching your budget. Embracing aqua cloud means investing in a modern solution with the most up-to-date features and fast customer support while keeping costs manageable.
