Get Zephyr (Test Management System)
Zephyr is an on demand Enterprise Test Management Company started in 2007 at Sunnyvale, CA.
Zephyr provides end-to-end management of the testing lifecycle in the test department including resources, releases and sprints, requirements, test cases, scheduling, test execution, defects, documents, collaboration and all aspects of reporting and metrics in real-time.
The first beta version was released in the fall of 2007 and following that an upgrade, Zephyr 2.0 came out in March 2008. Zephyr's most recent version is Zephyr 2.5 and it was released in April 2009.
Company History
Founding
Zephyr was founded by Samir Shah in 2007. Zephyr was started in order to provide solutions to the quality, pricing and user experience of existing Test Management tools. Samir also founded D Software company
Products and Platform
Product Overview
Zephyr 2.5 is a comprehensive test management system, based around the concept of Desktops & Dashboards. Every role in a Test Department has a customized Testing Desktop with relevant applications. It allows the users to share data from a centralized repository on the Zephyr server and communicate via a collaborative backbone. Dashboards are automated and live, keeping the whole company updated on every aspect of testing and product quality. The product enables enterprises to manage test resources, testing projects, releases, requirements, test cases, scheduling, test execution, defects, documents, automation, collaboration, metrics and reporting.
Zephyr 2.5 supports the needs of dynamic global test departments . Capabilities include Requirements Management, deeper insight into the quality lifecycle with increased metrics and end-to-end traceability, enhanced personalization to improve productivity and integration API to auto-update automation execution results. Zephyr also provides support for multiple languages besides English.
Software-as-a-Service (Saas)
Zephyr's SaaS option offers a hosted dedicated Test Management System. This ensures fast global access, increased uptime and global DR. Zephyr SaaS also provides access outside the firewall for geographically dispersed teams. Zephyr’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform is now available to customers across all industry sectors. A SaaS platform is evaluated on the basis of its eliability, adaptability, longevity, task productivity, Back end integration, ecosystem and price.
Key Features
1.Desktop to manage the entire testing process
2.Centralized data repositories provide all information history in an instant
3.Switch contexts in an interrupt-driven mode
4.Customized desktop for different set of applications for different roles
5.Multiple application window interactions and real time document updates
6.Customized navigation between various Projects and Releases, with all required information in one place
7.Test requirements management application allows for the creation, organization and management of all testing related requirements with two-way test case mapping and tracking.
8.Test automation results get auto updated
9.UTF-8 capability provides support for multiple languages besides English
10.Personalization improvements which enhance tester productivity
Platform
The Zephyr Platform is a SOA based Management Platform leveraging the best of advanced technologies. Zephyr is delivering an on-demand Test Management Platform in the Cloud with a new generation of applications designed to meet global Test and Quality Assurance departments. The Zephyr 2.5 product has been built on this extensible platform.
Key Features
- Service Oriented Architecture
- Web based platform with RIA, Management and Integration Service layers
- Management layer encapsulates and executes all business processes
- Well documented APIs for 2 way integrations with 3rd party systems
- RIA APIs feature ActionScript 3.0 .mxp and .swf extensions
- Server APIs feature REST and Webservices
- Complete stack is OS-agnostic
Older Products
Version 2.0 was the fore runner of Version 2.5. It introduced agents(Zbots) that run on target machines to kick off automated scripts from the Zephyr server. Version 2.0 was intergrated with the JIRA defect-tracking system. JIRA is approved and supported by Atlassian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlassian , with which Zephyr has formed a partnership. The Version 2.0 service also provided detailed metrics of all tests being done.
Market Competition
Borland 1
Techexcel 2
HP 3
SOASTA 4
AutomatedQA 5