OMG NGA is GA

I’m so excited, 
And I just can’t hide it. 
I’m about to write and post 
And I hope you’ll like it.

 For those who are not much into abbreviations, the title states:
“Oh My God, Next Generation ALM is (in) General Availability”

And to be precise ALM Octane, the official name of what used to be known as NextGen ALM, is now officially available to the general public.

This is truly a very exciting event for me as I have so much to tell about ALM Octane and so much to brag about the great achievements made. Now that ALM Octane is out I can let go of all that information and share it.

And still I must practice some restraints and to go slowly here and not just bring out an avalanche of information. So let’s start with some introductory facts:

It is Just Awesome

Once you create yourself an ALM Octane SaaS instance (and you will, you are, you did – well done!!) you will understand what I mean by “Just Awesome”. The user experience alone is one of our greatest prides. We strive not just to provide highly rich functionality. We have put a lot of effort in making it highly usable and engaging.

- Once inside, treat yourself to our interactive introduction tour- 

It is Abundant

Already in its debut, ALM Octane offers a wide set of capabilities and rich functionality: Fusing the best of quality management and agile management tool-sets down to integrating with continuous integration (CI) tools.

- A CI Pipeline showing its executed jobs and their test results - 

It is Genuinely Collaborative

ALM Octane embodies collaboration not just by means of passing notes between stakeholders but primarily by having all assets interconnected. This way for example, a developer can easily if how well the features and stories the developer is assigned to are covered by tests and how the tests results reflect on the content quality level. A QA engineer can easily access all related material relating to the features being covered and to get direct insights on the automated tests execution status up to the point of validating the test practices in conjunction with real production usage.

- User Stories reflecting their test coverage status - 

It is Highly Configurable

With much customization capabilities such as Business Rules, User Defined Fields, Workflow (of phases and transitions), Layout definition, and User Roles, ALM Octane can be easily molded to fit the exact needs of your teams, groups, divisions and your entire company.

-  Phases and Transitions make up the overall Workflow of an entity - 

It is just what every Enterprise needs

Though Scalability, Reliability, and Openness are IT terms that are easily tossed in the air in every IT related conversation, we keep taking these issues with great earnestness. ALM Octane is designed from the ground up to be an enterprise ready tool and cater to these factors.

It is Complimentary for ALM\QC Customers

Every customer on active maintenance for ALM\QC is entitled to ALM Octane.
So what are you waiting for...

Want to know more?

Drop me a note and write down a comment.

Save the Best for Start – Lesson learned from Switzerland Got Talent

How many times did you get to deliver a presentation with an amazing summary and punchline that came short in creating the effect you wanted to have?

See Corinne Sutter, this speed painter, doing her gig and how she almost lost her ticket in to the Switzerland Got Talent show: 

Part of the job for many of us involves presentations and those can come in various flavors. It can be of describing new ideas and initiatives for peers and managers, or instructional presentations for colleagues and customers, and of course sales presentation.

In most cases the attention of the crowed is limited and the more we stretch the limit of that span of attention the more likely we may lose most of the audience as the presentation progresses. This may result in a weaker buy-in for our ideas, or in reduced level of understanding of the concepts we try to convey, or simply failing to make that sell.

I, myself, am quite a logical person, thinking most of the time in a linear way. And for quite a long time, when I was asked to deliver a presentation I tried to take the audience through that linear path from Point A to the inevitable Point Z. I always thought that the people I talk to will have a better understanding of my idea\solution\business value if I will be able to first create a proper foundation of knowledge.

They will follow if they know where you are heading

As logical as this may sound, this form of a presentation will usually be less successful. People want to know where you are going, and where you are taking them. If the end point remains uncertain and illusive for a lengthy period of time (and that can be 30 seconds in an elevator pitch or 10 minutes in a key note session) the audience will become very uncomfortable, tired and sometimes even frustrated. In Corrine case above it took 1 minute and a half to be deemed as too long and boring.

This one goes under “Don’ts”

Keep the best for Start – Your bottom line must be placed on top. It would be best to engage your audience with your eventual goal close to the start and only later show the proofs and foundations to support your goal or idea.

Spill the beans right from the start

Do note that from storytelling perspective you can make your supporting arguments that follow your bottom line to be as engaging and exciting as the revelation of your eventual idea – that would be a good idea for another post.