Welcome to InflectraCon 2020! Please enjoy Inflectra's partner presentation on the best practices and lessons learned from years of using a defined process with a complex set of criteria to help companies choose the most suitable ALM technology stack for their enterprise needs. The key takeaways are: - Showcase the expertise gained by PTA in guiding customers in selecting an ALM tool on the example of Inflectra’s suite of software. - Share the lessons learned from both sides of the “negotiating table” and present the best practice for tool selection from large German companies. The presentation is by the Inflectra Partner - PTA GMBH. The companion video is available here https://youtu.be/Euxx5SiqFKE

1. Inflectra In Real Life
Best Practices:
Choosing Your ALM Tool-Set
@Inflectra | #InflectraCon

2. Frank Heise
Head Of Quality Services, PTA Consulting

3. PTA Consulting
▪ IT-Consulting and development partner in various industries
▪ Expertise and experience gathered in over 50 years of successful work
▪ Around 400 employees at 11 locations in Germany and 1 in Switzerland
▪ Independent of manufacturers & financial markets
▪ Consulting partner of Inflectra in Germany since 2009

4. Session Objectives
▪ Motivation and aims of the presentation
▪ Important success factors
▪ Selection process for an ALM-Tool
▪ Unique selling points
▪ Short summary

5. Motivation and aims
of the presentation

6. Motivation and aims
▪ Experience from projects with major German companies
▪ Best practice for the selection of an ALM-Tool
▪ PTA has gained deeper insight from both sides of “negotiating table”
Inflectra-(Partner)
Other tool-provider
Below referred to
as provider
Provider
Company
User of the tool
Below referred to
as customer
Customer

7. Important
success factors

8. Important success factors
(1) Identification of stakeholders and their continuous integration in the process
(2) Defined and transparent process for selection of the tool
(3) Structured analysis of the requirements
(4) Lived and functioning processes
(5) Definition of objective and measurable evaluation criteria for the selection of tool
(6) It's all about communication
(7) Managing expectations (a tool is no silver bullet)

9. Selection process for
an ALM-Tool

10. Overview of the process
Requirements
analysis
Pre-
selection
Tool
selection
Proof-of-
Concept
Implementation
and training

11. Overview of the process
Requirements
analysis
Pre-
selection
Tool
selection
Proof-of-
Concept
Implementation
and training

12. Selection process
1) Requirement analysis

13. Stakeholders
▪ Careful stakeholder analysis at the beginning of the tool selection
▪ Typical stakeholders for an ALM-tool
− Departments (users of the tool)
− Process owners (Incidents, Releases etc.)
− Development and Test Manager
− Support and IT Administrators
− Technical domain experts (e.g. test automators, CI experts)

14. Objectives, benefits and risks
▪ Identification of objectives and benefits
− Which activities should be supported?
− Which processes should be supported with which priority?
− What measurable benefits should the tool have?
▪ Identification of risks and management of these risks, for example
− Do existing processes need to be changed
− Selection of the wrong tool
− Resistance within the organization
Customer

15. Structured analysis of the requirements
▪ Are the processes lived and documented (e.g. incident management, Creation and
acceptance of the test cases)
▪ Definition of KO criteria (SaaS, Localized language, data management in Europe)
▪ Size approx. 200 requirements
▪ Definition of categories to cluster the requirements
▪ Use of checklists recommended
Customer

16. Categories for the requirements
Functional
requirements
Requirement
management
Test cases and
test management
Defect
management
Reporting and
dashboards
…
Non-
functional
requirements
Performance Scalability
Installation and
migration
Integration und
interfaces
…
Provider and
Product
Service-Quality
and support
Market
position and
innovation
Training und
documentation
Security &
compliance
…
Costs Acquisition Maintenance Licenses
Introduction
and training
…
Customer

17. Weighting of the categories
Category 1
Category n
Subcategory 1
Subcategory n
Requirement 1
Requirement n
Requirements
Subcategories
Requirements
factor
factor
factor
factor
38%
19%
24%
19%
Functional
requirements
Non-functional
requirements
Provider and
product
Costs
Customer

18. Selection process for
2) Preselection

19. The preselection
▪ Creation of a longlist using
− Internet research
− Questioning other companies
▪ Definition of the criteria, including some KO-criteria
▪ Creation of the shortlist (3 - 5 provider)
− Internet research
− Survey of reference customers
− Review of articles about the different tools
Customer

20. Selection process
3) Selection of the Tool

21. Workshops with the provider
▪ Informed and well prepared stakeholder are vital
▪ Explain the complete selection process to the different providers
▪ Explain the procedure of the workshop to every invited person
▪ Clear definition of an agenda to the provider:
− Which scenarios should be shown
− Good experience with "wow factors"
− The workshop explicitly does not talk about economic aspects
Customer

22. Workshops with the customer
▪ Good preparation of the workshops (do not hesitate to clarify questions!)
▪ Clearly defined roles (e.g. moderator and tool expert)
▪ Good follow-up of the workshop
− Protocol and a list with open questions
− Prompt clarification of open questions
− Clearly defined contact person for queries
Provider

23. Rating of the stakeholder
Provider
Category 1
Category n
Subcategory 1
Subcategory n
Requirement 1
Requirement n
Requirements
Subcategories
Requirements
factor
factor
factor
factor
Result
Result
Result
Result
Result
Result
Result
Result
Result
x
x
x
x
For example:
1,2,3,4
rating
rating
rating
rating
For example:
1,2,3,4
Customer

24. Visualization of the results
Tool 1
Tool 2
Tool 3
Functional requirements
Non-functional requirements
Provider and product
Costs
Requirement
management
Test cases
Test
management
Defect
management
Reports and
dashboards
Customer

25. Unique selling points

26. Unique selling points of spira
▪ Good traceability from the requirements to the releases
▪ Out-of-the-box integration of a variety of tools and open interfaces
▪ Simple and transparent licensing model (floating-license, not role-based)
▪ Individually adaptable workflows
▪ Price/performance ratio
Customer

27. Short summary

28. Summary
▪ The selection and introduction of an ALM tool are a (small) project
▪ The selection process must be transparent to internal and external stakeholders
▪ Clear separation between purchasing and the rest of the team
▪ Management of expectations
▪ Even a good tool is not accepted by the departments without good training
Customer

29. Summary
▪ No tool can compensate missing processes
▪ Make a customer-specific presentation
▪ Management of expectations
▪ Clear contact persons for the different tasks and roles
▪ Be binding and always react quickly
Provider

30. Thank you very much
Kind regards from Cologne