Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is Talmia?

  • Talmia is a reliable, powerful, and intelligent ALM process automation and reporting tool for the Microsoft Team System platform. More information can be found here.

2. What is ALM?

  • ALM stands for Application Lifecycle Management. It is a term used to refer to all software development activities and the relationships between them. More information can be found here.

3. What is Microsoft Team System?

  • Team System is an ALM, team collaboration, and software development platform. It comprises the Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio® client tools. More information can be found here.

4. How much does it cost?

  • Pricing is based on the Team System model - i.e. a price for the server components, and a per-seat Talmia Client Access Licence. More information can be found here.

5. What types of processes does Talmia support?

  • Talmia supports practically any ALM process and allows them to be tailored exactly to your needs. This includes: requirements management, design, construction, testing, and elements of project management. Some specific examples are listed below:
    • Ensuring all necessary steps are followed during project start-up and closure
    • Ensuring requirement artefacts are properly created, reviewed, tracked, and signed off
    • Verifying architecture and design work has been properly approved before implementation
    • Enforcing code reviews, unit tests, and other relevant engineering practices during development
    • Managing test execution cycles
    • Automating the build and release process

6. Will Talmia force certain process behaviour on me?

  • No, you have complete freedom to make your processes as liberal or rigorous as your situation requires (this is also adjustable on a per-project basis as required).
  • Talmia's Designer provides the flexibility needed for practical process definitions that are highly responsive to project challenges and changes.

7. What version of Team System is needed for Talmia?

  • Talmia Server works with both Team Foundation Server 2008 and 2010.
  • The Talmia plug-in works with Visual Studio® 2008 and 2010.
  • Talmia has been and will continue to be fully tested against future versions of Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server to ensure compatibility, smooth upgrades, and reliability.

8. Do I need to have Visual Studio® installed to use Talmia?

  • No, Talmia works with any Team System client; only a web browser is required.

9. Does Talmia require a specific process template?

  • Talmia has been designed to be independent of process and process template choices. It works with built-in or third party process templates and can even create custom process templates automatically to match your exact needs.

10. Are the benefits of Talmia easily accessible?

  • Talmia has been designed with ease-of-use in mind throughout:
    • The graphical drag-and-drop Talmia Designer really benefits authors and provides a natural and easy-to-follow expression of process behaviour.
    • Clear, comprehensive, and automated reports benefit project managers by showing real-time progress across projects and by providing simple-to-use drill-down capabilities, e.g. into individual work items.
    • Automated and individualised 'todo' lists benefit process users by showing both work expected and relevant process guidance. Next process steps are automatically generated on task completion - making process enforcement easy, convenient, and completely transparent.
    • Talmia's installers, enterprise strength reliability, and easy backup/recovery options give infrastructure teams simple and reliable functionality.
  • More information on the benefits of Talmia can be found here.

11. What are the system requirements?

  • Talmia Server can install to any existing Team Foundation Server (TFS) environment.
  • Talmia supports single or split TFS deployments and has been designed from conception for enterprise scale performance and scalability.

12. Can I get a demonstration and/or evaluation copy?

  • Yes, both demonstrations and fully featured, time-limited evaluation versions are available on request. Please contact us for details.

13. Is training and/or other support available?

  • Talmia is fully supported by GamCom's team of specialist ALM consultants. More information on GamCom's background can be found here.
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