LAFAYETTE, CALIF. – April 16, 2012 – TechExcel Inc., a leading provider of Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) solutions, today announced the availability of TechExcel DevSuite 9.0, the latest version of the company’s award-winning integrated platform for requirements management, implementation tracking and quality management. New features and enhancements enable collaborative and flexible agile development across globally distributed teams, significantly increasing business agility and improving software quality. With DevSuite 9.0, organizations will see dramatic increases to TCO, ROI, percentage completed on time and within budget, and customer satisfaction from their development projects. A webinar demonstrating the benefits and features of DevSuite 9.0 will be held on Wednesday, April 25, 2012. Free registration is available at https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/830899330.

“Many businesses like to think they are running an Agile development shop, but the reality is they are likely running something more Agile-ish,” said Randy Hearn, Senior Research Analyst, Info-Tech Research Group. “This is where solutions like DevSuite come into play. They don’t lock you or your team into an Agile Box or a Waterfall Box, they allow you to run projects your way. ALM solutions provide the means to communicate across your extended teams, no matter how big you are, or how distributed your team may be. Since communication is critical to any project success, using ALM tools such as DevSuite your project teams will have better knowledge transfer and be more informed which results in higher quality products and productivity from your team.”

“Our goal is to help our users achieve a balanced and sustainable development environment that encourages teamwork, promotes self-motivated performance, and manage software projects according to their own unique needs and priorities” said Dr. Tieren Zhou, TechExcel Founder and Chief Software Architect. “DevSuite 9.0 allows these organizations to scale agility to match the

size and pace of their organization, while also tapping into new global markets and access to global talent to shorten development cycles and reduce costs.”

Multi-site Support for Globally Distributed Development

Modern software development involves multiple teams located across the globe. With built-in Multi-site support, DevSuite 9.0 enables globally-split teams to work and collaborate as if co-located by providing each team a local server from which they can perform all their tasks that automatically syncs with a System Master Site. Enabling LAN-speed over the WAN for daily operations like viewing and editing tasks, reporting, and downloading design documents, can easily save 20+ minutes a day per team member. When totaled throughout the year, this becomes a significant cost saving as well as leading to gains in productivity and quality. The DevSuite Multi-site architecture also provides 24×7 availability and can be easily scaled by adding additional servers to meet the increased demand for processing power or distribution.

Single Interface for Managing Mixed Methodologies

Whether a single developer working alone or multiple teams geographically distributed, few organizations have implemented Agile processes across the entire software development lifecycle. DevSuite 9.0 provides project leaders with a single interface for managing Agile, traditional and hybrid methodologies, across multiple teams and projects. Utilizing a convenient web interface, administrators can create project templates to enforce any development workflow, assign tasks, and view real-time project metrics. Real-time project visibility enables teams to detect and resolve issues as they occur, minimizing QA and rework.

Native iPad and Android Tablet Applications

The use of smart mobile devices in business today is ubiquitous and continues to grow at the speed of light. DevSuite 9.0 enables portfolio level reporting and document management via iOS and Android applications.

Additional Community-Requested Features

TechExcel has refactored all modules within DevSuite to improve overall performance by as much as 400% in some cases. The company has also added features to further extend traceability and visibility of requirements and specifications during the planning, development and testing phases. Additional customer-requested features and enhancements include:

  • Better User Experience: The DevSuite Web GUI has been improved to take advantage of all available space to represent data, whether in tabs or pop-up windows
  • Full Lifecycle Traceability: A comprehensive and real-time view of all internal and external processes and resources, including portfolio management, requirements, development, and QA Testing
  • Sprint Planning View: Quickly and easily view linked requirements, release backlog and product/defect backlog and use drag-and-drop capabilities to populate the sprint based on priority
  • MS Word Integration: Requirements created in Word can now be easily imported. Users can also export requirements to Word, make edits and then have them automatically synced.

DevSuite consists of Portfolio, DevSpec, DevPlan, DevTrack, DevTest, KnowledgeWise, and optionally DevTime. The suite can be purchased as a whole or the individual modules can be purchased as needed. Available as a desktop and internet solution, DevSuite provides powerful workflow and process automation, robust searching and reporting, and simple point-and-click customization. It also features an intuitive user interface, universal ODBC support, advanced email notification, built-in time tracking, extensive customization options, and presentation-quality reports and graphics. For a detailed product description and live demonstration, visit https://www.techexcel.com/products/devsuite/devsuite.html.