AWS CodeCommit Deprecated - Easy Migration to TaraVault Git

August 5, 2024

Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced on July 25th, 2024 that it is deprecating AWS CodeCommit, and advising its customers to migrate to an alternate Git platform. Many of our customers use AWS services including CodeCommit, and have been asking us for alternatives. In this article we describe the recent AWS news and outline how you can easily migrate your AWS CodeCommit repositories to Inflectra TaraVault and also integrate other AWS code offerings such as CodeBuild and CodePipeline.

GITEX Africa 2024 - Powering Africa into the Global AI Economy with Inflectra

June 24, 2024

If you're looking for insights into the future of AI and cloud technology, Inflectra's participation at GITEX Africa 2024 offers a fresh outlook, providing a glimpse into:

• The latest trends shaping the tech landscape: How are AI and cloud transforming industries?
• Inflectra's cutting-edge solutions: What tools are empowering businesses to thrive in the digital age?
• Key takeaways for tech professionals and leaders: What are the actionable insights to stay ahead of the curve?

Read more!

Recap: Unleash the Power of AI for Faster, Smarter Software Delivery

May 28, 2024

Artificial intelligence is no longer a buzzword in software development – it is a transformative force reshaping how we create, test, and deliver products. Our recent InflectraCON 360 event, "Software Delivery at the Speed of AI," pulled back the curtain on how AI is accelerating the entire software development lifecycle. From smarter, faster testing to AI-generated code that's changing the very nature of quality assurance, the impact is undeniable. Continue reading to watch the recording, read highlights, and more.

Recap - Develop Smarter, Deliver Faster: Spira and GitHub Integration Spotlight

October 27, 2023

In a recent webinar, we teamed up with Coveros to present an insightful session on leveraging the synergy of Spira and GitHub. This event emphasized the significance of integrating these powerful platforms and the transformative impact it could have on development and delivery workflows. Our collaboration highlighted our shared dedication to equipping our community with the tools, insights, and integrations that not only simplify tasks but also amplify their effectiveness. Continue reading to see the recording, highlights, and more.

Gitex Global 2023: The Year to Imagine AI in Everything

October 25, 2023

GITEX GLOBAL brings together the world’s most innovative enterprises and best minds to elevate business, economy, society and culture. GITEX GLOBAL 2023 marks The Year to Imagine AI in Everything, supercharging the epic global race for AI supremacy by revealing unmissable prophecies and expert perspectives about its impact. Inflectra was honored to attend this years conference and present its range of AI-enabled tools for quality and agile program management to world stage. Learn more about the event and the connections we made.

Webinar Recap: What's New in Rapise v8.0

September 8, 2023

Rapise v8.0 has finally been unveiled to the tech community! Recognized widely as a pinnacle in the realm of test automation tools, with a rich array of innovative features and fine-tuned enhancements seamlessly integrated into its design, the tool promises an elevated level of usability and adaptability. From novice users to seasoned testers, everyone can expect a smoother and more efficient testing experience. Continue reading to see a recap of our recent webinar where our experts provided a comprehensive overview of this new release and set the stage for what users can anticipate in their automation journeys using Rapise v8.0.

Best Practices in Modern Software Development

July 5, 2023

Software development has become the driving force behind innovation and success in the digital era. Organizations must embrace best practices that optimize their development processes and deliver superior software products to thrive in this dynamic landscape. From planning to deployment, we'll explore techniques, features, and strategies that empower teams to build robust and scalable applications. Let’s uncover actionable insights to accelerate development cycles and ensure success in today's competitive environment.

Ingeniería de Calidad con Plataformas Inflectra - Sesiones Relámpago

May 18, 2023

Únete a la nueva iniciativa de Inflectra: Ingeniería de Calidad con Plataformas Inflectra – Sesiones Relámpago. Sesiones Relámpago son una serie de demos de los productos estelares de Inflectra: Spira* y Rapise. 

Durante estas sesiones de 30 minutos impartidas en inglés y español, discutiremos la mejor manera de superar desafíos de ingeniería de calidad utilizando Spira y Rapise en tiempos de incertidumbre, específicamente en estos tiempos problemáticos de recesión en curso.

How AI helps QA Shift Left

May 16, 2023

by Appsurify

Shipping with confidence is hard. Even leveraging all best practices, Digital Leaders and Testers may only feel 99% confident their release will be bug-free. Getting that additional 0.9% is painstakingly time-consuming.

Read on to learn how Appsurify helps testers significantly increase confidence without additional effort so QA can ship earlier and faster using their AI-powered risk based testing tool, TestBrain.

AI/ML's Impact on Development & Test Automation

April 19, 2023

What are AI & ML?

AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) refer to the use of computer systems that can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence, such as understanding natural language, recognizing images, making predictions, and learning from experience. More specifically, “artificial intelligence” is an umbrella term that includes a variety of subcategories, such as machine learning, natural language processing, machine vision, and more (similar to our basic senses).

Inflectra Ninjas - Technical Assistance Drop-ins for Spira And Rapise Users

April 5, 2023

Inflectra is proud to introduce a new user engagement program called Inflectra Ninjas.

Inflectra Ninjas is a series of hour-long workshops where Inflectra’s technical support team, Devs, and testers help customers find solutions to their real-world challenges. This unscripted, some-to-many technical assistance drop-in will help facilitate a quicker adoption and ease of use of Inflectra’s flagship products: Spira and Rapise. 

Read more and sign up for upcoming sessions.

Webinar Recap: Lightning Session - Rapid & Easy Test Automation Using Rapise

January 24, 2023

The Inflectra team continued our Lightning Sessions series focusing on Rapid & Easy Test Automation Using Rapise. In this session, Inflectra’s experts demo'd our award winning test automation tool (Rapise) and went over product plans for 2023. This webinar took place on January 11, 2023.

Read more to see the recording.

Time to Switch Your Chrome Browser Library in Rapise

December 19, 2022

As we explained in our announcement for Rapise 7.3, Google is in the process of phasing out its older plugin system (called Manifest V2) in favor of a new plugin architecture (Manifest V3). This new architecture has higher security, but means that automated testing tools (like Rapise) will not be able to record or play tests using such plugins. This, together with some other breaking changes in Chrome, mean now is the time you need to switch browser libraries in Chrome.

Webinar Recap - Rapise v7.4 Webinar: Web Components, AgGrid, Mixed-Mode and 64-Bit Apps

November 22, 2022

On November 22, 2022, Inflectra hosted Rapise v7.4 Webinar: Web Components, AgGrid, Mixed-Mode and 64-Bit Apps. This event was led by one of our Senior Software Engineers, Alexey Grinevich, and our Principal Software Engineer, Denis Markovtsev.

View more to see the topics covered, full recording, and presentation!

AG Grid Support in Rapise 7.4

October 27, 2022

One of the major new features in Rapise 7.4 is the support for the popular AG Grid. Born out of frustration with existing solutions, the AG Grid evolved from a side project to becoming the leading JavaScript datagrid on the market. It supports all the major JavaScript frameworks, including React, Angular, Vue and Plain JavaScript. Due to its complexity, the grid is often painful to test with hard-written Selenium automation code, but  the new support for AG Grid makes it simple to test using Rapise. Learn More!

Rapise 7.4 Spotlight: 64-Bit Support and Cross-Application Recording

October 26, 2022

We just recently released the latest version of our Rapise test automation solution, Rapise 7.4. This version has two main, marquee new features - support for HTML web components and the popular AG Grid. In addition, this new version has three other very important test automation enhancements: support for 64-bit desktop applications (both Java and .NET), streamlined cross-application recording, and support for the testing of embedded UI apps.

Web Components Support in Rapise 7.4

October 25, 2022

As you may remember, we recently introduced support for Shadow DOM in Rapise 7.3. Now with the release of Rapise 7.4 we take the Shadow DOM support to the next level and also enable support for another technology from the Web Components suite: HTML Templates; to be more specific - for SLOT element. Let’s deep dive into the details of Web Components as well as the new SLOT element, and how Rapise supports them for automated web testing.

API Testing: Benefits, Types, Approaches, & More

August 25, 2022

A crucial part of software development, the quality of your API testing can have a huge impact on the final product, as well as the timeline and budget. APIs help pieces of software communicate and share data, meaning that testing them to ensure quality and reliability is paramount. To understand all of the benefits that come from this testing, we’ll go through some of the most significant factors before detailing the different types of testing that might match your situation. Lastly, we’ll cover how to approach the testing process and the common types of API technologies that you might come across or use.

Spotlight on Rapise 7.3: New Selenium Based Recording for Chrome and Edge Browsers

June 23, 2022

In December of 2020, the Google Chrome browser team made a major announcement - the release of Google Chrome Manifest 3. This new version of Chrome is designed to radically improve the security and safety of web browsing. Specifically:

With the introduction of Manifest V3, we will disallow remotely hosted code. This mechanism is used as an attack vector by bad actors to circumvent Google’s malware detection tools and poses a significant risk to user privacy and security.

However this new manifest version has an unfortunate side effect for the software testing industry, it will prevent the Chrome extensions used by many popular test automation tools such as Rapise, Ranorex, TestComplete, UFT and others from working. Luckily in the case, of Rapise, we have new web browser recording solution ready for you to use in Rapise 7.3. This will be released six months before Google formally switches over to Manifest V3.

Spotlight on Spira 6.16 - GitHub, GitLab and CircleCI Webhook Integrations

April 7, 2022

The upcoming release of our Spira platform includes the long-awaiting support for integrating several different DevOps Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines into Spira, including GitLab, GitHub and CircleCI. The first phase of this integration enables this support by using the ability to configure Webhooks in the three products that send the results back to Spira. We have added special API endpoints in Spira that understand each webhook format and can read the results appropriately.

Reviewing the 10 Best API Testing Tools for 2022

March 17, 2022

API testing is a type of software testing that analyzes an application program interface (API) to ensure it meets expectations in terms of functionality, reliability, performance, and security. Since APIs play a major role in our digital lives, API testing ensures that the application is running in an efficient and seamless manner for the end user.

Webinar Recap: Rapise 7.2: New Functionality: Global Objects

March 7, 2022

On March 3rd, Inflectra hosted a webinar focused on the new functionality and enhancements of Rapise v7.2. In this webinar, we covered:

• New global object: Generator

• New global object: Spira

• New global object: Text

• Automatic download for Selenium drivers

• Spira Dashboard and RapiseLauncher enhancements: Productivity improvements, Test Matrix, Execution progress in RapiseLauncher

• Creating incident in Spira from Rapise test

• Generating sequential variable values that are unique across test runs

• String manipulation in Rapise Visual Language (RVL)

If you missed the webinar, we have a full recap below.

Sneak Peek on 2022: GitLab Pipelines comes to Spira

December 13, 2021

As we start preparing for 2022, we will be providing some information on our plans for 2022, including some previews of planned functionality in our Spira and Rapise platforms. One of the key plans for 2022 is a closer integration of our Spira platform with GitLab. We already have source code repository and issue tracking integration, but the planned enhancements for 2022 include support for GitLab CI Pipelines.

Sneak Peek on 2022: GitHub Actions comes to Spira

December 2, 2021

As we start preparing for 2022, we will be providing some information on our plans for 2022, including some previews of planned functionality in our Spira and Rapise platforms. One of the key plans for 2022 is a closer integration of our Spira platform with Microsoft GitHub. For those monitoring the Microsoft DevOps ecosystem, Microsoft is making a strategic shift away from its legacy Azure DevOps (ADO) in favor of GitHub. In fact, the latest versions of Visual Studio will be favoring GitHub over Azure DevOps.

Webinar Recap: Rapise 7.1: OracleForms, Executing UFT/QTP Scripts, Floating Licenses

October 29, 2021

On October 28, Inflectra hosted a webinar called Rapise 7.1: New Functionality and Enhancements. Denis Markovtsev, Principal Software Developer, covered the following topics in the live webinar:

1. Overview of new big features:

   1. Support for OracleForms applications

   2. Executing UFT/QTP Scripts

   3. Spira managed floating licenses

2. Demonstration of Spira Dashboard and RapiseLauncher enhancements:

   1. Productivity improvements

   2. Set input parameters via a test set attachment

   3. Parallel execution of Test Cases in RapiseLauncher

   4. Option to automatically rerun a test set if failed

3. Selected new features:

   1. Tools > Npm Console to install node modules for a test framework

   2. More SoftAssert statements

If you missed the webinar, we have a full recap below.

When Microsoft Dynamics 365 Updates, Rapise Has You Covered!

September 1, 2021

One of the biggest challenges with test automation is the maintenance of the tests. This is especially true when you automating complex third-party packaged SaaS applications that are updated monthly by the vendors. For example, when you are testing ERP or CRM applications such as Microsoft Dynamics 365, Salesforce, SAP or Oracle, you may have lots of customizations that you need to test. However the base product will be updated every month by the vendor so your automated tests are at the mercy of breaking changes in the core system.

Webinar Recap: Rapise 7 - What's Covered in the New Release

June 30, 2021

On June 29th, Inflectra hosted a webinar on Rapise 7.0 Is Here. Denis Markovtsev, Inflectra's Principal Software Developer, covered the following topics in the live webinar:

1. New Spira Dashboard

2. Support for Flaky tests and an automatic rerun of failed tests

3. Soft assertions and attaching files to test runs.

If you missed the webinar, we have a full recap below 👇

Spotlight on Rapise 7.0 - New Flaky Testing Support

June 29, 2021

Two of the major features in our most recent release of Rapise are the completely overhauled Spira Dashboard and the new support for handling the bane of test automation engineers everywhere - flaky tests! In this article we shed some light on how Rapise 7.0 can make flaky tests a thing of the past.

Spotlight on Rapise 7.0 - New Spira Dashboard

June 28, 2021

Two of the major features in our most recent release of Rapise are the completely overhauled Spira Dashboard and the new support for handling the bane of test automation engineers everywhere - flaky tests! In this article we shed some light on the new dashboard in Rapise 7.0.

Webinar Recap: Mobile Testing in a Device Cloud with Rapise

May 25, 2021

On May 18th, Inflectra hosted a webinar on Mobile Testing in a Device Cloud with Rapise. Denis Markovtsev, Inflectra's senior automaton architect covered the following topics in the live webinar:

1. How to connect to a device cloud

2. How to record/execute Mobile tests with Rapise

3. How to orchestrate execution on different devices with SpiraTest

If you missed the webinar, we have a full recap below 👇

Spotlight on Spira 6.9 - OData Reporting API

April 26, 2021

One of the old adages about reporting is that however many reports you create, you will always need one more! With that in mind, Spira has for many years had a powerful and flexible reporting engine built-in that lets you create custom reports and custom graphs using the Entity SQL (ESQL) query language. However users have asked us if there was a way to use their favorite reporting tool (e.g. Excel or Microsoft PowerBI) to connect to Spira to create reports. With the latest version of SpiraPlan that is now possible, for both cloud and on-premise customers using our new OData API.

Recap: Behavior-Driven Testing with Rapise and Cucumber JS

April 21, 2021

On April 20th, Inflectra hosted a webinar on Behavior-Driven Testing with Rapise and Cucumber JS. Alexey Grinevich covered the following topics in the webinar:

1. How to create behavior-driven tests that are maintainable and readable 

2. How to record behavior-driven tests

3. How to use Rapise Visual Language (RVL) and Cucumber JS in behavior-driven testing.

If you missed the webinar, we have a full recap below 👇

Recap: New Rapise v6.7 Functionality

March 24, 2021

We are glad to present the recap of our recent product-centered webinar about the new functionality and features of Rapise 6.7 - Inflectra's scriptless test automation platform for testing web, desktop, and mobile apps. Alexey Grinevich, Inflectra's senior automation engineer presented the webinar, in which he covered the following enhancements: 

• New RapiseLauncher Features (Test Set attachments, CLI enhancements, RDP disconnect)
• New Rapise Visual Language (RVL) Toolbox Features
• Improved support for NodeJS as JavaScript execution engine in Rapise
• Improved Azure DevOps integration (RapiseLauncher & Rapise Test Adapter Task)
• Improved Rest API Testing in Rapise v6.7.

If you missed the event, here are the recording and presentation slides. Enjoy!

Recap: QA Solutions for the Financial Sector: Insurance, Banking and Capital Markets

March 18, 2021

On March 17, we hosted a webinar on QA Solutions for the Financial Sector: Insurance, Banking, and Capital Markets with Adam Sandman and Amol Khare. If you missed the webinar, here is the full recap!

The following topics were covered during the webinar:

• JIRA Server Discontinued: Its impact on software demand in the Financial sector 

• Risks, compliance, and tools in the Financial Sector

• QA And Enterprise Management Solutions for the Financial Sector: SpiraPlan on-premise, its differentiators, and long-term deployment options.

The webinar recording and presentation are also enclosed below👇

Spotlight on Spira 6.7.1 - CI Build and Source Code Diff Enhancements

January 13, 2021

We are excited about the next release of Spira 6.7.1, due to be released in early February. This new version includes some usability enhancements for viewing the differences between changes in large source code files as well as a major overhaul of the continuous integration (CI) build details page. These enhancements streamline the viewing of CI builds and verifying the code changes included in each CI build.

Spotlight on Spira 6.7.1 - Source Code Pull Requests & Code Reviewing

January 11, 2021

We are excited about the next release of Spira 6.7.1, due to be released in early February. This new version includes new source code Pull Requests functionality that lets development teams leverage the existing tasks feature in Spira to more easily track the different code branches. The Pull Request tasks are used to help teams review the code before they are merged into the main development branches (develop, master or main depending on your branching and merging methodology).

APIs Are Loose In The Wild: EuroSTAR 2020 Q & A

December 8, 2020

During the recent EuroSTAR 2020 Virtual Conference, Adam Sandman, Director of Technology at Inflectra presented a session on Testing APIs in the Wild. During this talk, there were many questions from the attendees, but unfortunately during the session, there was only time to answer a few of them. In this blog, Adam covers some of the remaining questions.

Webinar Recap: Rapise 6.6 - New Features and Enhancements

November 17, 2020

We are happy to share with you a recap of our recent live webinar on Rapise 6.6 - New Features and Enhancements. If you missed the webinar, please enjoy this video recording.

Webinar Agenda:

The webinar will cover the following areas: 

• Rapise 6.6 - new features and improvements
• New features: CI/CD integration, Git integration, and Framework building. 
• System Enhancements: Reporting, Rapise Launcher, API Testing; new Actions to already supported Objects.

Spotlight on Spira 6.7 - Markdown Preview & Rendering Capability

November 17, 2020

We are excited about the next release of Spira 6.7 that is due to be released in early December. As mentioned in the previous article on the new release, a key area of focus in this new release is improving the experience and functionality for developers and development teams. With that in mind, we have revamped the source code management and documents management module, and for the first time, there is now a way to view rendered markdown files directly in Spira.

Spotlight on Spira 6.7 - Integrated Source Code Difference Viewing

November 10, 2020

We are excited about the next release of Spira 6.7, due to be released in early December. As mentioned in the previous article on the new release, a key area of focus in this new release is improving the experience and functionality for developers and development teams. With that in mind, we have revamped the source code management module, and for the first time, there is now a native code difference viewing capability in Spira.

Join Adam Sandman at EuroSTAR 2020 for API Testing Talk

November 9, 2020

I am delighted to be part of EuroSTAR 2020. I can’t wait to get involved, learn and connect with all the testers that are joining from across the globe. 

Join me for my talk ‘APIs are Loose - How Do We Test Them?’, Says Adam Sandman, Technical Director at Inflectra.

The Connect Virtual Conference Platform Is Now Open-Source | InflectraCon 2020

November 5, 2020

We have amazing news! 

The source code for a fully customizable and free virtual conferencing platform is now available to the delight of all independent event companies and community conference organizers everywhere.

The conference platform is called Connect and it is born out of Inflectra's Connect conference platform - the same one we used to run our wildly successful InflectraCon 2020 Virtual. The details of the open-source Connect conference platform are available as a project on GitHub! 

Spotlight on Spira 6.7 - Enhanced Source Code Management

November 3, 2020

We are excited about the next release of Spira 6.7 that is due to be released in early December. This new version has lots of general enhancements, bug fixes, and improvements to baselining. However, a key feature of this new version is a completely revamped Source Code Management module. Our company's mission is to enable Harmony between developers, testers, and managers, and this new release is focused heavily on the needs of Developers.

IQM Studio - Enhanced Model-based Testing Add-On for Spira and Rapise | InflectraCon 2020 IRL

October 22, 2020

We have recently hosted Inflectra's annual user conference - InflectraCon. In 2020, we have dedicated InflectraCon to Agile Software Testing and DevOps theme and held it virtually. InflectraCon 2020 combined multiple tracks, of which, one - called Inflectra in Real Life or IRL in short - showcased the various uses of the Inflectra platforms (SpiraTest, SpiraTeam, SpiraPlan, Rapise, Kronodesk, etc.). 

Below, we will present an InflectraCon 2020 IRL talk by our US-based Partner - Critical Logic. The session demonstrates how IQM Studio generates tests and scripts and how to integrate it with SpiraTest for test management and with Rapise for script execution.

Spotlight on Spira 6.5.2 - Visibility of User Stories through the DevOps Toolchain

July 1, 2020

One of the focus areas in the upcoming release v6.5.2 of SpiraTeam and SpiraPlan is to streamline and improve the process for managing code within Spira, and providing better traceability between source code revisions, CI builds, DevOps pipelines, and Spira artifacts such as requirements, user stories, tasks, defects and change requests. In this article we describe some of the enhancements coming in the next version.

Webinar Recap: UI Automation 101: 5 Ways To Use Rapise Frameworks

June 16, 2020

On June 10, 2020, Inflectra and Alexey Grinevich, Ph.D. hosted the last webinar in the series called: UI Automation 101. In this webinar, Team Rapise focused on 5 Ways To Use Rapise Frameworks and discussed the following: 

• Rapise features relevant to the typical Test Framework process
• Different approaches to the test framework design
• The real-life examples of testing frameworks in Rapise.

If you missed the webinar, please enjoy this recap below, complete with a video recording.

Inflectra To Speak at TestingMind Virtual Events - Spring 2020

April 16, 2020

This spring, Inflectra has the good fortune to collaborate with TestingMind and to bring you three amazing talks on a range of topics- all under the rubric of Emerging Test Automation and Digital Influence in QA. The event is virtual and is taking place on April 24- 28th.

Test Automation Training While You Are Teleworking

March 27, 2020

As we discussed in our blog on Teletesting (testing while teleworking), working from home has its challenges, with difficulties in setting work/home boundaries, avoiding distractions and knowing when to take a break. However teleworking and being at home during a quarantine or lockdown is a perfect time to brush up on your skills and get some training. So, building on our new Rapise Quick Start implementation packages, we are pleased to offer some free training while you are sequestered.

Webinar Recap: Rapise v6.3 - Better Test Frameworks for Your Applications

February 24, 2020

On February 12, 2019, Inflectra hosted a live webinar on the new and improved features of its software test automation platform - Rapise (version 6.3). If you missed the webinar, please enjoy this recap, complete with a video recording.

Rapise Automation Scripts Coming to a Container Near You!

December 17, 2019

We are excited to announce a new beta feature in Rapise - running web and mobile tests under NodeJS. This lets you execute Rapise tests not just on Windows where Rapise is typically installed to write tests, but in other places - on Macs, Linux, containers such as Docker or Kubernetes, and build pipelines such as Azure DevOps pipelines, CircleCI, TravisCI and GitHub pipelines.

Webinar Recap: Automating REST/SOAP API Testing (Part 4)

December 6, 2019

On December 4, 2019 Inflectra hosted a live webinar, called: Automating REST/SOAP API Testing. This is the 4th webinar in the Tier 2 Certificate series called: Planet Test Automation: First Steps. 

If you missed the webinar, we are happy to share this recap👇 with you!

Webinar Recap: Automating Desktop UI Testing (Part 2)

November 5, 2019

On October 30, 2019 Inflectra hosted the 2nd live webinar: Automating Desktop UI Testing from the Tier 2 Certification series called: Planet Test Automation: First Steps

If you missed the webinar, we are happy to share this recap👇 with you!

Seamless Migration from Micro Focus UFT to Rapise (Part 2)

November 4, 2019

Many organizations are looking to update their software testing processes and tools, with an industry-wide move away from some of the older, monolithic legacy suites from vendors such as Micro Focus (formerly HP, and Mercury Interactive before that) to more modern tools. This second article in the blog series, provides a deeper insight into the new UFT migration and conversion framework that has been developed by Inflectra to help our customers more easily migrate from UFT to Rapise.

Inflectra Creates Harmony in the Software Development Universe

September 27, 2019

The tempo of software development is always increasing. With the adoption of agile methodologies, the move to continuous integration and deployment, and the use of DevOps platforms, it seems that everything needs to be done faster. In this maelstrom of activity, we at Inflectra want to help customers avoid the chaos of missed deadlines, and unfulfilled requirements... and bring harmony. Learn how and why!

Spotlight on Rapise 6.2 - Selenium and Appium Auto Reconnect

September 3, 2019

The latest version of Rapise, our powerful and easy to use test automation tool comes with some key usability enhancements that make testing mobile native applications and mobile web applications even easier. It lets you start recording tests from the point they last failed without having to start from the beginning, a huge time saver.

Spotlight on Rapise 6.2 - Machine Learning & Self-healing Web Testing

August 29, 2019

We're very excited about the next version of our Rapise test automation system. The new version leverages research done by the Inflectra artificial intelligence and machine learning unit to introduce self-healing web testing and self-healing web locators to take the flakiness and manual effort associated with automating web testing.

Webinar #Recap: Codeless Test Automation

July 11, 2019

On July 10, 2019 Inflectra hosted the 5th live webinar: Codeless Test Automation, from the series called: Test Automation, Demystified.

If you missed the webinar, here is a recap of the most important take-aways:

Webinar #Recap: Introduction To Powerful New Rapise 6.0

April 24, 2019

On April 11, 2019 as part of the official release launch, Inflectra hosted a live webinar on the improved Rapise 6.0. The webinar highlighted the major changes and new features added to inflectra's software test automation platform.

If you missed the webinar, please enjoy this recap, complete with a video recording.

Changes to Jira Data Synchronization due to Atlassian GDPR Changes

March 8, 2019

For those of you who keep up with the Atlassian ecosystem, you will most likely be aware of some breaking API changes that they are making to their cloud platform. This article describes the changes and explains what that means for Inflectra customers.

Webinar Recap: The Top Alternative To Micro Focus QA Suite

March 4, 2019

We have recently hosted a webinar on The Top Alternative To Micro Focus QA Suite. If you missed the webinar, please enjoy the recap in this blog.

Spotlight on Rapise 6.0: UI Redesign, Dynamics Unified Client and SAP Fiori

February 26, 2019

Our automation group is wrapping up the final testing and documentation for our next major release of Rapise, our powerful and easy to use codeless test automation tool. With the new 6.0 version getting ready for release in the next couple of weeks, we thought it would be useful to highlight some of the major changes and new features you can expect with the new version.

Webinar Recap: Codeless Test Automation - Myth or Magic?

February 6, 2019

On January 31, 2019 Inflectra hosted a test automation-related webinar called: Codeless Test Automation - Myth or Magic? 

During the webinar, Adam Sandman, Inflectra's Technical Director, showcased the top 10 features a competitive codeless test automation tools should include in 2019.

If you were unable to attend this webinar, we have a recording for you.

Feel free to check it out below.

We've Built an AI-Powered Robot for Salesforce with Rapise - A Webinar Recap

December 17, 2018

Our last free webinar of 2018 had an ambitious goal: to use Rapise to build an AI-powered robot that can mine Salesforce contacts from email signatures. The presenter was Inflectra's senior automation architect - Denis Markovtsev who showed us how to design a robot that can read emails from Exchange mailbox, send emails to a third-party Machine Learning powered REST service for contact extraction, and how to create new contacts in Salesforce via the UI.

Some of you may have missed the webinar, so we made a recording for you, which is enclosed.

10 Features Every Codeless Test Automation Tool Should Offer

December 3, 2018

There's a resurgence of codeless test automation tools in the market, and members of the testing community are understandably skeptical of the promises of hassle-free, easy to maintain testing. This article describes the benefits that codeless test automation tools provide over having your programmers write automation code by hand, and outlines how Rapise meets the test laid down by experts in the industry of the ten key features that such a tool needs to have to be useful.

Webinar Recap: Security Testing in Dynamics AX 2012 with Rapise

November 30, 2018

On November 29, 2018 we hosted a webinar on automating the testing of yet another aspect of Dynamics AX - its security permissions. 

If you were unable to attend, here is the webinar recording. 

How to Create a Data-Driven End-to-End Sales Order Test for Microsoft Dynamics NAV using Rapise

November 19, 2018

Dynamics NAV is all about Purchase and Sales orders. Therefore many end-to-end testing scenarios involve creation of an order at a certain step. Sales Order, for example, requires to fill in customer name and order lines. If there is a need to use different data in different testing scenarios then there is a requirement to make the Sales Order test data-driven. The enclosed video explains how to do just that using Rapise. 

Recording of MS Dynamics AX & Robotic Process Automation (RPA) with Rapise

November 1, 2018

Rapise is the most powerful and complete software testing tool on the market for testing the Microsoft Dynamics family of applications. In addition, many of our customers are using Rapise to perform Robotic Process Automation (RPA) of Dynamics applications to automate common business processes and tasks. We recently had a webinar that demonstrated the best practices and tips and tricks for testing and/or automating Microsoft Dynamics AX. Don't worry if you missed the webinar, we have a recording available.

Recap: #STPcon 2018 - Inflectra Meets Testers & QA Professionals in Washington, DC

October 30, 2018

Team Inflectra were pleased to sponsor the 2018 Fall Software Testing Professionals Conference (STPcon) in Arlington, VA last week. We met a lot of inspirational speakers and had a chance to demonstrate the latest version of our award-winning SpiraTest - test management software, and Rapise - our test automation platform to the attendees. We also got to give away lots of cool Inflectra swag and prizes for winners of the STPcon raffle.

Bulk Import of Requirements Test Step Traceability for Mission Systems

October 18, 2018

One of the unique needs when designing and developing mission systems for the defense industry, is the fact that you need to be able to trace system requirements to individual test steps in a test case. Based on this advice we received from industry subject matter experts, we added support in SpiraTeam v5 for this feature. However one limitation was that the data migration tools we have for loading data from Excel into SpiraTeam don't let you add requirement - test step links in bulk... until today.

Recording of MS Dynamics NAV & Robotic Process Automation (RPA) with Rapise

October 11, 2018

Rapise is the most powerful and complete software testing tool on the market for testing the Microsoft Dynamics family of applications. In addition, many of our customers are using Rapise to perform Robotic Process Automation (RPA) of Dynamics applications to automate common business processes and tasks. We recently had a webinar that demonstrated the best practices and tips and tricks for testing and/or automating Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Don't worry if you missed the webinar, we have a recording available.

How Do You Pronounce Spira and Rapise?

October 5, 2018

It's Friday and after a long week at work, we thought it might be good to share an anecdote from the week. We had a customer call our support team with a really important question that had been vexing their team. How do you pronounce Spira? Well find out the truth.

Lessons Learned from Using Rapise to Develop/Test Rapise

September 10, 2018

If you remember our blog post - The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes - then you'll remember that we lamented that it's often hard to practice what you preach when it comes to yourself, because you are so busy delivering first for customers! Well, as a prequel to that, we realized that it was worth mentioning how ended up using Rapise to debug issues in Rapise itself!

How to Wreck Your UI Test Automation Project - A Cheat Sheet

September 4, 2018

A while back we wrote about how to make a UI test automation project a nightmare, well in the second part of this blog series, we explore some ways you can wreck and derail an automation project. Hopefully, you will do the opposite and become a test automation hero!

The Cobbler's Children Have No Shoes

August 22, 2018

One of the most famous expressions is that the people who are in the business of a providing a particular service are so focused on delivering for their customers, that they don't practice what they preach for themselves. For example, the cobbler who repairs shoes, has no time to fix those of his family. However that analogy is unfortunately often the same when you look at software...

GitLab Plugin Now Available for Spira

August 16, 2018

At Inflectra, we love making our customers lives easier. That’s why we make it easy to use other tools in conjunction with ours. We’re really excited to announce a brand-new integration with a product we all know and love – GitLab. 

GitHub Plugin Now Available for Spira

August 9, 2018

At Inflectra, we love making our customers lives easier. That’s why we make it easy to use other tools in conjunction with ours. We’re really excited to announce a brand-new integration with a product we all know and love – GitHub.  

Introducing the Web UI Test Automation Playground

August 7, 2018

We have all seen slick demos of automated testing tools and frameworks. They show how you can quickly automate a nice, well constructed login page. The test records easily, the playback is seamless and it all looks so easy and painless. Then you purchase the tool and when it makes first contact with a real application, it looks as seamless as a Rube Goldberg machine!

Recording: Selenium Page Object vs Object Repository - Inflectra Webinar

July 23, 2018

We recently had a webinar that demonstrated the similarities and differences between Selenium Page Object vs Rapise Object Repository. Don't worry if you missed the webinar, we have a recording available.

This webinar was first presented at DevGeekWeek 2018 by Inflectra's senior software engineer - Alexey Grinevich.

Eight Ways Shortened Delivery Cycles Can Impact Software Teams

July 23, 2018

When a software developer likely hears that delivery cycle times are getting smaller, the first reaction is probably one of understandable panic and frustration. Will quality suffer? How can we meet deadlines if we don’t have the time? How will the budget be affected? There are tons of thoughts that will race through the mind of a software developer met with this new decision, but this can turn into a positive thing.

There are many ways a shortened delivery cycle can impact software teams, and if it is framed in the right way, it can mean good things for the whole team. Read on for eight ways a shortened delivery cycle can positively impact software teams.

Using REST & UI Testing To Test An Ajax Web Application - Webinar Recording

July 20, 2018

We are please to share with you the recording of our recent webinar on Using REST & UI Testing To Test An Ajax Web Application. 

The webinar is based on a talk by Adam Sandman, first presented at STPCon Spring 2018. 

Webinar Recap: Addressing The Challenges Of Web UI Test Automation Using Rapise

July 16, 2018

Thank you for joining our July 5th webinar on Addressing The Challenges Of Web UI Test Automation Using Rapise. The webinar recording and slides are offered below for those who had to miss it. 

Robotic Process Automation (RPA) with Rapise

July 3, 2018

Robotic process automation (RPA) software is designed to quickly automate business tasks in applications such as Microsoft Office, Web application, Microsoft Windows client/server applications, or even Legacy AS400 applications without coding or programming. Unlike API automation tools, RPA tools connect to the user interface of the applications, simulating the user actions to complete the business tasks.

Rapise Price Change Coming Soon

June 18, 2018

We are announcing a new price for Rapise -  Inflectra’s test automation powerhouse, to come into effect on August 1, 2018.

The new pricing policy affects only the new purchases of Rapise. Inflectra’s existing customers and existing quotes of Rapise (if issued before August 1, 2018) will not be affected by the price change.

Webinar Recording: Testing MS Dynamics 365 Business Central with Rapise

June 11, 2018

We are please to share with you the recording of our recent webinar on automating testing of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central with Rapise. 

How Rapise Makes Testing Dynamics 365 Easy as Pie

June 4, 2018

Now we all know that automated testing can be a real pain sometimes. Imagine you have this big, complex web application with lots of dynamic elements, IFRAMEs, hidden layers, and other impediments to automation. Writing test automation scripts by hand with Selenium would be a Herculean task. So instead, see how we have built intelligence into Rapise to make testing such an application easy as pie.

Recording of Software Development & Testing Challenges in Financial Services

May 30, 2018

Thanks to those who attended our recent webinar discussing the challenges and opportunities testing and developing software and systems in the financial services and banking industries. We have published a recording of the webinar and Q&A.

Eating Our Own Dogfood - Using Rapise to Automate Spira

May 17, 2018

So, we had the task of loading a bunch of users into an instance of SpiraTest for our upcoming Social Testing competition this week. The good news was that we had a nice Excel sheet of all the users that had registered using Eventbrite and Meetup, but we now had to get them into SpiraTest. What we needed was a tool that can read a spreadsheet and make REST web service calls into SpiraTest to create the projects and load in the users. Wow, we have a tool that can do that, Rapise! Find out how we used Rapise to automate this laborious task.

Recording of UI Test Automation for a Dynamics 365 AppSource App with Rapise

May 2, 2018

The webinar demonstrates how to create a framework for automated end to end (E2E) testing of a third-party application for the Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform. It is a great example of how you can extend the functionality of Rapise yourself to test custom controls (grid, tables, treeviews, etc.) more easily.

Moving from Subversion to Git

March 13, 2018

Late last year we decided to migrate our core applications - SpiraTeam, KronoDesk and Rapise - from our legacy on-premise Subversion server (that we had been using since 2007) to our own cloud hosted TaraVault service. We realized we should always be using the same services as our customers, commonly known in the industry as "eating your own dogfood". If we didn't like something in TaraVault, we would be motivated to change it!

Recording of Testing the Migration from AngularJS to ReactJS with Rapise

March 6, 2018

We recently hosted a webinar demonstrating how our Rapise automated testing system simplifies the testing of a modern web application that is being migrated from one JavaScript framework to another, in this case from AngularJS to ReactJS.

Inflectra Goes West - User Summits Are Coming To California

March 2, 2018

In mid-April 2018, #teamInflectra is coming to California! And we're combining teaching and learning at STPCon with efforts to strengthen relationships with the Inflectra community on the West Coast. With this in mind, we've planned a number of events for our partners, customers and technologists in California:

1. Three User Summits in Los Angeles and San Francisco, CA
2. Two Lunch & Learn events at two Wework locations
3. Individual meetings with key partners in CA

Please consider joining us for one of the events detailed below:

Recording of Testing Salesforce Lightning with Rapise Webinar

February 14, 2018

Rapise is the most powerful and easy to use software testing tool on the market for testing Salesforce.com. We have many customers and partners using Rapise to streamline their testing of Salesforce.com, cutting down the time to test every new patch, update, or customization. We recently had a webinar that demonstrated the best practices and tips and tricks for testing Salesforce's new Lightning Edition. Don't worry if you missed the webinar, we have a recording available.

Recording of Testing Dynamics 365 for Operations with Rapise Webinar

January 30, 2018

Rapise is the most powerful and easy to use software testing tool on the market for testing Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations. We have many customers and partners using Rapise to streamline their testing of Dynamics products, cutting down the time to test every new patch, update, or customization. We recently had a webinar that demonstrated the best practices and tips and tricks for testing Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations. Don't worry if you missed the webinar, we have a recording available.

Recording of Testing Dynamics NAV with Rapise Webinar

January 25, 2018

Rapise is the most powerful and easy to use software testing tool on the market for testing Microsoft Dynamics NAV. We have many customers and partners using Rapise to streamline their testing of Dynamics products, cutting down the time to test every new patch, update, or customization. We recently had a webinar that demonstrated the best practices and tips and tricks for testing Microsoft Dynamics NAV. Don't worry if you missed the webinar, we have a recording available.

How to Make UI Test Automation a Nightmare - A Developer's Guide

December 19, 2017

We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.
― Richard Feynman

There are many ways in which you can make the lives of test automation teams harder. If you are a developer or system architect and one of testers is the kind of guy you dislike, this article is for you. Enlightened by the sacred knowledge contained in this short article you will learn how to make UI of any application nearly untestable.

Alternatively, if you are a kinder soul and respect others' hard work, you may consider topics presented herewith as anti-patterns.

So, let's go.

Recording of the Microsoft Dynamics CRM / 365 for Sales Webinar

December 19, 2017

Rapise is the most powerful and easy to use software testing tool on the market for testing Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales. We have many customers and partners using Rapise to streamline their testing of Dynamics products, cutting down the time to test every new patch, update, or customization. We recently had a webinar that demonstrated the best practices and tips and tricks for testing Dynamics CRM and Dynamics 365. Don't worry if you missed the webinar, we have a recording available.

Recording of Testing Salesforce.com with Rapise Webinar

December 1, 2017

Rapise is the most powerful and easy to use software testing tool on the market for testing Salesforce.com. We have many customers and partners using Rapise to streamline their testing of Salesforce.com, cutting down the time to test every new patch, update, or customization. We recently had a webinar that demonstrated the best practices and tips and tricks for testing Salesforce.com. Don't worry if you missed the webinar, we have a recording available.

Recording of Testing Dynamics AX 2012 with Rapise Webinar

November 28, 2017

Rapise is the most powerful and easy to use software testing tool on the market for testing Microsoft Dynamics AX 2012. We have many customers and partners using Rapise to streamline their testing of Dynamics AX, cutting down the time to test every new patch, update, or customization. We recently had a webinar that demonstrated the best practices and tips and tricks for testing Dynamics AX. Don't worry if you missed the webinar, we have a recording available.

Rapise 5.4 - Rewriting its Support for Firefox 57

November 8, 2017

As we wrote back in August, Firefox has completely changed its plugin architecture in the soon to be released Firefox 57. One of the side effects is that many plugins including Selenium IDE and the plugin used by Rapise will not work. However one of the benefits of a commercial tool like Rapise is that we provide support, including updating our plugins when necessary.

Updated Visual Studio IDE Plugin Now Available

October 23, 2017

At Inflectra, we want to make you life as easy as possible, so you can get back to developing. That’s why, we've updated one of our popular developer plugins for SpiraTeam - our flagship ALM platform. You don’t have to worry about switching windows between your web browser and Microsoft Visual Studio IDE just to track what you have to get done. Our updated Visual Studio plugin provides a more streamlined way to review your assigned work and track progress. In addition, the latest version includes support for the SpiraTeam contact manager introduced in v5.

Updated Product Roadmaps for KronoDesk and Rapise Released

September 26, 2017

We are pleased to release the updated Development Roadmaps for our KronoDesk help desk system and Rapise test automation platform. The development roadmaps outline the functionality enhancements planned for later this year and 2018.

Fun To Be Had With Inflectra This Fall

September 7, 2017

It is never a dull moment with Inflectra, and after the lull of summer, we are back with vengeance! Which is to say, we are going all out sponsoring two software testing events in September-October 2017 in the US: STPCon in the greater D.C.-area and Agile Open Florida, in Orlando, Florida. So, if you are attending one of these, read what Inflectra has in store for you (and if you are not, there is still time to sign up):

Spotlight on Rapise 5.3: Testing Dynamics NAV Applications

September 5, 2017

As you may know, one of the core strengths of Rapise is its support for testing Microsoft Dynamics applications. Rapise offers the best automated testing solution on the market for Microsoft Dynamics AX, CRM and 365. However that is not sufficient for us, after several customer requests, we are pleased to announce that the next version of Rapise due for release in a couple of weeks will also include built-in out of the box support for MS Dynamics NAV as well.

Work Smarter & Faster with JetBrains Plugin for SpiraTeam

August 24, 2017

At Inflectra, we want to make your lives as easy as possible, so you can get back to developing. That’s why, with the help of our intern, Peter - we’ve built plugins for SpiraTeam - our flagship ALM platform, that work with your favorite IDEs. You don’t have to worry about switching windows between the browser and IDE just to track what you have to get done. Jetbrains has a wide variety of popular IDEs for different languages (like IntelliJ for Java, PyCharm for Python, WebStorm for Javascript, and PhpStorm for PHP), and we are pleased to announce a brand new SpiraTeam plugin to help you work smarter and faster for all Jetbrains IDEs.

The Top 3 Tools In Automated UI Testing for Dynamics AX

August 7, 2017

Ever wonder which automated UI testing software to use for Dynamics AX ?

We have a review that compares the three top tools on the market: Visual Studio Coded UI, Rapise and AXeptance. Read how each of them fair when tested against the following five criteria:

1. functionality
2. ease of use & maintenance
3. date-driven testing
4. reliability
5. speed

Speeding Up Software Testing with New Eclipse Plugin for SpiraTeam

August 3, 2017

At Inflectra, we want to make it as easy as possible for you to manage your tasks, bugs, and requirements, so you can get back to developing. That’s why we develop plugins that work in the IDEs you use the most. Eclipse remains the most popular Java IDE on the planet, and we are happy to announce a new version of our Eclipse plugin.

Rapise 5.2 Now Available

August 1, 2017

We have big news - Rapise 5.2 is Now Released! Our automation development team has been working to add the remaining features needed for full scriptless test automation using Rapise Visual Language (RVL) and now it is here!

Expanding the Rapise Universe with Elastic Search and Google Drive

July 28, 2017

Software products are not islands, the value of a product is how well it works with the surrounding ecosystem of other technologies, frameworks and platforms. In this article we highlight some of the recent work by Team Inflectra to integrate our Rapise test automation tool with ElasticSearch and also demonstrating how it can be used to automate a combination of web and desktop UIs to drag and drop files from Windows Explorer to Google Drive.

Spotlight on KronoDesk 2.1: Support for Organizations and Digital Signatures

July 24, 2017

We are busy bees this summer, and we will be releasing the next version of our KronoDesk help desk system (v2.1) in the next month. In this article we describe the two main new features in KronoDesk 2.1 and what you can expect from the new version.

Spotlight on Rapise 5.2: Data Driven Testing

July 17, 2017

We are busy bees this summer, and one of the most exciting new features of Rapise is the fact that we're adding support for data-driven testing using the new Rapise Visual Language (RVL) with the introduction of Maps and Loops to the new scriptless language.

Roundup: 10 Reasons You Should Switch From HP to Inflectra

July 12, 2017

We just released the final evaluation guide in our three part series comparing legacy HP products with new and easy to use alternatives from Inflectra. Coinciding with the announcement that HP is selling its software assets to Micro Focus, we thought it would be good to highlight the three guides in case you need help convincing your boss or a co-worker on the benefits of switching to Inflectra.

#TechTuesday: Resilient UI Test Automation for Web Applications

June 20, 2017

Web applications are a perfect example of a rapidly moving target for UI test automation tools. Agile and DevOps drive small changes and frequent releases. This leads to certain challenges in QA field. How to create tests that survive after small UI changes? How to create tests that produce same results if ran 10 times in a row on an unmodified application? How to create tests that check exactly those features they were designed to check?

Answers to these questions are not entirely simple. Test automation is still an art.

In this blog we try to figure out what every test automation engineer can do to find the right answers. First I'll give a few examples that illustrate common challenges in Web UI test automation.

#TechTuesday: Automated Testing of Complex Web UI Components: Behind The Scenes

June 14, 2017

Take any tool for UI test automation and you will notice that they always lack support for some of the UI controls. And I am not talking about trivial ones like buttons and edit boxes, but the one that are custom controls, which are unique and created for specific needs. It can be some sophisticated grid or menu or a fancy tree. A number of such controls in this rapidly evolving world is growing exponentially. So, every UI test automation engineer is challenged by emerging UI frameworks in every project. This is especially true for Web applications.

As a provider of a UI test automation tool - Rapise - we constantly do our best to arm engineers with the most advanced technologies to help them deal with new UI controls.

This article by Danis Markovtsev will showcase a real-life example of this. 

All This Talk of Real-life TestOps Environment...

June 12, 2017

We’ve mentioned before that Inflectra is sponsoring DevGeekWeek2017 in Israel later this month. One of the perks of being a sponsor is an ability to engage with the conference attendees through seminars and talks. It is then only natural that we decided to also contribute our experience, technical knowledge and testing wisdom to this conference.

So, we are sending #TeamInflectra’s crème de la crème - Adam Sandman, Inflectra’s Technical Director, to talk about A Real-life TestOps Environment during a seminar called: Real Testing Scenario Strategy lead by Anna Lucovsky on June 21, 2017.

Google for Developers: Pros and Cons of Google's Sheets API

April 18, 2017

Chris, one of Inflectra's latest interns, has created a brand new way to get data into SpiraTeam: Google Sheets (feel free to check out the code on Github). Google Sheets is great product, letting you create spreadsheets from anywhere at anytime. While it's great for us as consumers to use, what's it like for a developer? Chris explains some plusses and minuses to working with the Google Sheets API.

Keeping the Foundations Strong - Why Refactoring Is Crucial

September 20, 2016

One of the challenges with development is that users only see the outside of the system, the user interface, perhaps the APIs if they are more technical and unless the system has a problem, the architecture and internals are largely ignored... so how do you get customers to invest in the architecture for the future when they see no immediate benefit.

What You See is What you Get (or Not)?

May 5, 2016

One of the aspects of SpiraTeam v4.x that we have had much feedback on is the rich text editor (aka the WYSIWYG editor). This widget has been part of SpiraTest since v1.3.1 and was suggested by long time user Terry Mack. Despite being enhanced throughout the years since SpiraTest v1.3.1 we have decided for SpiraTeam v5.0 to start from scratch, find out why we made that decision!

The Value of Continuity - Or Why We Develop In-House

December 31, 2015

Like most software companies, every day we get several emails from various IT service companies offering us low-cost developers and testers to help us with the development and testing of our products. Every day we put these emails in the trash folder. So why have we always built our products in-house? Are we foolish? Are we myopic?

From Darkness to Light

November 19, 2015

The SpiraTeam development group has been working really hard on version 5. It will bring many great new features that our users have been requesting. We also get asked about refinements to the user experience. We have been equally busy carefully updating every screen, every button, and every field our customers will see and use in version 5.

Cross-Origin Web Services with CORS and WCF

September 25, 2015

As part of our work on Spira v5.0 and the new plugin we're developing for the popular ZenDesk help desk system, we need to be able to make cross-original REST web service calls to Spira. For KronoDesk we used JSONP, but for ZenDesk we decided to add CORS (Cross Origin Resource Sharing) support to Spira 5.0 to make it easier. However implementing CORS support  using WCF was not so easy so we're publishing our solution to help other software developers implement CORS using

REST vs. SOAP What did we Choose?

March 13, 2015

These days APIs are all the rage, with any application or web site worth its salt providing an API, usually using SOAP (more likely nowadays) or REST as the possible option. Well we've had a SOAP API available in Spira since 2008 and recently we announced the introduction of a complete REST API as well. So what does this mean for the future of Spira and why did we choose to add a REST API? Read More

New Inflectra Website Coming this Weekend

February 27, 2015

Well, we've heard the feedback and this weekend we shall be launching an updated Inflectra website with a new fresh modern look that is easier to use, works across all devices and sets the foundation for other changes coming later this year.  Read More

Infrastructure Isn't Free - So Who Pays?

August 5, 2014

When I collected my last car from the dealership, the salesman proudly showed me under the hood. The engine was tightly packed into the available space with no separately recognizable components and it was noticeably clean. Despite his apparent pride in its power, as he quoted a list of figures representing liters, horsepower and torque, all I was thinking about was getting behind the wheel and driving away.

When he finally got around to the interior I had all but forgotten that the car even had an engine. I know I am not alone in my attitude when it comes to cars for while there are those who love to get down-and-dirty with the internal workings of the internal combustion engine, most of us just want to drive it.

Is There Such a Thing as Extreme Agile Programming?

July 21, 2014

Extreme Programming (XP) is one of the more popular Agile Development methodologies, and for very good reason. It advocates short, rapid iterations, constant customer contribution and frequent testing. But let us consider the foundation of Extreme Programming, which is to identify all the positive aspects of software programming techniques and take them to their extreme; the idea being that you can’t have too much of a good thing. For example, if tests help find defects, why not test all the time?

If we consider Agile methods generally, (not XP specifically) to also be a combination of good ideas, XP would tell us to take those ideas to their extreme; could we do that and create “Extreme Agile Programming (EAP)”? Or would we be trying to swallow our own tail? Let’s consider some Agile principles and find out.

When is Configurability a Bad Idea?

May 22, 2014

What is worse than a product that is not configurable? Answer: a product that is completely configurable. This might seem counter intuitive: don’t we all want to have products that we can control and dictate their behavior? Well, yes, and no. As products become more configurable they often become harder to use, or at least hard to set up. Read More

Agile is Nothing New

April 23, 2014

When we talk proudly of adopting Agile processes for our projects, why do we do so with a somewhat superior air over the old tried and trusted methods of software development? Read More

The Software Chicken and the Egg

April 16, 2014

For a considerable period of time, we did well organized testing, but not against requirements that were formally defined.
Why was it deemed necessary to automate the test management process before there were any decent tools for recording exactly what we were testing for? Read More

Beware the Over-Engineered Software Product

April 8, 2014

When evaluating software features to either build or buy there is a tendency to want to have every possible feature even if it will be rarely (or event never used) on the off-chance that it could be useful. This post describes some of the pitfalls with this approach. Read More