TechExcel Delivers New Tracking Tool, Enters ALM Market

The tools vendor's DevTrack 6.0 features scalability, improved reporting and automation, while its upcoming application lifecycle management suite will compete with IBM Rational, Borland, Serena and others.

Tools vendor TechExcel has announced the availability of a new version of its issue tracking tool, DevTrack, and is building out a suite of tools to address the application development life cycle.

TechExcel, a developer of issue and process management solutions based in Lafayette, Calif., said DevTrack 6.0. enhances the defect-and-project tracking tools ability to manage and automate the development life cycle through extended workflow functionality, scalability, and seamless integration with IT service and test management solutions.

Jeff Johnstone, director of sales at TechExcel, said Version 6.0 is a major release of the product that features workflow capabilities, Web and client interfaces, new inline screen shot capture, improved reporting, improved user interface layout and improved load balancing.

DevTrack combines the flexibility and ease of configuration of a graphic workflow editor with new functionality designed to meet the needs of both small and large organizations, Johnstone said.

Click here to read about Borlands increasing focus on ALM.

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In addition, using the diagramming tools, you can define every aspect of a workflow rule, including next actions for each status state, application owners for each status state, who can perform actions, and invisible/read only/mandatory fields for each workflow action and status state.

In addition to the new workflow functionality, DevTrack 6.0 also features two performance enhancements designed specifically for large development teams: support for generating large reports and for performing extensive keywords searches against multiple memo fields.

"DevTrack is a very mature product," Johnstone said, adding, "We also have ease of customization for very small teams."

TechExcel is building out a suite of development tools that address the ALM (application lifecycle management) space and put the company into more direct competition with companies such as Borland Software, IBM and Serena Software.

Read more here about Serenas development tracking offerings.

Johnstone said TechExcel is working on a product called DevPlan, a "DevPlan will be a Microsoft Project-like tool" for project management. And the planning tree from DevPlan will directly populate the development tree in DevTrack, he said.

"For the first time well have a system thats very powerful on the planning side and powerful on the implementation side," Johnstone said of DevPlan, which he said is expected to ship in mid- to late March.

Another TechExcel offering in progress is DevTest, a high-end quality assurance test management tool, which will be part of DevSuite, a new suite of the companys tools that will also be available in March, Johnstone said.

In addition, TechExcel is working on a product called DevSpec, a requirements management tool that will round out the companys suite when DevSpec becomes available later this year.

"We will then be able to cover the entire development life cycle," Johnstone said.

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