The Vantive System is a client/server product that works with Oracle Sybase, or Informix database back-ends, can run on Sun, HP, RS/6000, etc, and has a graphical user interface for Motif, Macintosh, and MS Windows clients.
It was tested in Novells "superlab" and performed well with hundreds of simultaneous users connected.
The Vantive Corporation also sells a customization tool with which the product can be modified to fit a particular development environment.
Jonas Almgren Application Developer The Vantive Corporation 1890 N. Shoreline Blvd. Mountain View, CA 94043 Phone: (415) 691 1500 Fax: (415) 691 1515
************************* DISCLAIMER ************************* I am not a spokes person for The Vantive Corporation. No information given herein has been verified by The Vantive Corporation. All opinions expressed herein are my own. ************************* DISCLAIMER *************************Below follows a description of Vantive Quality (I apologize for the somewhat tiring marketing orientation - and it assumes no previous knowledge of software engineering):
A complete track record of your development process, from specification through development to production and maintenance. Not only products, but also specifications, documentation, services and tests are handled by Vantive Quality. This is a requirement for compliance with ISO 9000.
Extensive classification capabilities, following the standard defined by IEEE (1044-D3), are used for customer cases as well as product failures. This helps in achieving coherent data entry, and simplifies searching, reporting, and avoidance of duplicate entry.
Vantive Quality supports a model in which failure reports transition through different phases, from recognition, through analysis, to fix and closure. Information can be added throughout the process, not only by adding classifications and free text, but also by being able to link the failure to any product "level", from assemblages of products (if a failure cannot be linked to any one specific product), to singular products, individual modules, or even specific software files.
In Vantive Quality, the information related to different phases of the problem report, and different levels of detail, are captured by three main object types: cases, failures, and faults. Cases would usually be entered by the customer support organization, and is the entry point for many problem reports. When engineering/QA verifies the validity of a case, a failure would be created. The failure would be analyzed by engineering, and for the underlying software errors, faults would be reported. Cases would normally capture the users perception of the problem, together with a rough analysis by the support engineer. Failures with pin down the exact symptoms of the problem, and the contexts in which the problem can be repeated. Faults would capture the most detailed level of information, where the problem would be related to the causes, e.g. errors in files, program functions, or even program line numbers.
To further support the analysis of failures and faults, Vantive Quality allows you to link a failure or fault with different product builds, module versions, or item revisions, for each step in the analysis and closure process. You can capture information about where the failure/fault was found, where it was introduced, where it was fixed, and where the fix was verified by QA.
All changes to the information Vantive Quality track can be audited.
Since Vantive Quality tracks a complete set of information about failures, faults, fixes, and the product development cycle, a broad range of quality metrics measuring the current product status can instantly be computed (e.g. mean time to failure). The history of such metrics and how they relate to different product phases can be used to estimate appropriate levels for certain phases, such as alpha, beta, and FCS. Such estimates can also be used to predict remaining development time, remaining number of defects, and other values useful for product planning. Vantive Quality can even automatically notify appropriate people when certain changes to the quality metrics occur; for instance a warning could be generated if the number of unresolved defects in any individual module exceed a certain threshold, or to inform the QA manager that the current levels allow roll out of the beta release.
Vantive Quality can also be used to pin-point weak/volatile areas in your product and/or development process, e.g. you can trace modules where failures frequently reoccur or areas where fixes rarely solve the complete scope of a problem.
To keep the Vantive Quality database in synch with out-of-system product information, source control systems such as SCCS, RCS, PVCS (both Unix and DOS), and Atria ClearCase can feed the database directly with information through an "open link". With such an arrangement in place, engineers only have to enter information about bug fixes and enhancements once. In fact, they would never have to use the GUI of Vantive Quality directly.
Vantive Quality tracks predecessor/successor relationships between products, modules, and items. This allows for impact tracing, i.e. when the introduction of a fault has been localized, the effected product releases can immediately be found, and the Vantive Support part of the Vantive System allows an immediate look-up of customers that possibly can be affected by the fault.