Bumblebee Alternative — Migrate Your HP ALM Jenkins Integration to BuildButler

If you've been using the Bumblebee Jenkins plugin to upload test results to HP ALM (now OpenText ALM / Micro Focus ALM / Quality Center), you've probably noticed: it's not being maintained anymore. Builds break after Jenkins updates. Compatibility issues pile up. And there's no one to fix them.

Your ALM integration shouldn't be a liability. BuildButler is a drop-in alternative that supports the same ALM Field Mappings XML format, automatic defect management, and all six test result formats — plus it works with GitHub Actions and GitLab CI, not just Jenkins.

The Bumblebee problem

Bumblebee was the standard for years. It ran as a Jenkins post-build step, parsed test results, and uploaded them to HP ALM. For many enterprise teams, it was the only option.

But Bumblebee has been effectively abandoned:

• No updates for Jenkins LTS releases — compatibility breaks with each major Jenkins update
• No support channel — issues go unanswered
• No new features — while ALM has evolved, Bumblebee hasn't
• Java dependency issues — older Bumblebee versions conflict with modern Jenkins plugin dependencies

Teams are stuck: the tool they depend on is decaying, but migrating feels risky because their entire ALM workflow is built around it.

BuildButler as a Bumblebee replacement

BuildButler was designed to be a seamless migration path from Bumblebee. Here's what that means in practice:

Same ALM Field Mappings XML

Your existing Bumblebee ALM Field Mappings XML works in BuildButler without modification:

<mappings>
  <url url="https://alm.example.com:8080/qcbin">
    <domain name="DEFAULT">
      <project name="test_project">
        <mapping alm_field="TS_USER_01" label="test user 1"/>
        <mapping alm_field="CY_USER_01" label="test set user 1"/>
        <mapping alm_field="RN_USER_01" label="run user 1"/>
      </project>
    </domain>
  </url>
</mappings>

Paste your existing XML into BuildButler's System Settings and your custom field mappings carry over.

Same post-build step model

BuildButler's Jenkins Local plugin offers an HP ALM Uploader post-build step with the same familiar fields:

• Domain, Project, Test Plan directory, Test Lab directory
• Test Set naming with template variables
• Result file patterns (Ant-style globs)
• Custom Properties (label=value pairs resolved via the XML mappings)
• Test Plan Mode (find-only or create-minimal)

If you've configured Bumblebee, you can configure BuildButler — the concepts map directly.

Same defect management

BuildButler mirrors Bumblebee's Auto Defect Management:

• Create policy — create or update open defects for failing tests
• Reopen policy — reopen defects for recurring failures
• Resolve policy — close defects when tests pass
• Configurable status mappings, severity, and custom field values
• Defect summaries prefixed with [Build Butler] for easy identification

More test formats

Bumblebee supported JUnit and TestNG. BuildButler supports six formats:

If you've been using a separate tool for .NET or Allure results, BuildButler consolidates everything.

What you get beyond Bumblebee

BuildButler isn't just an ALM uploader — it's a complete CI analytics platform. When you migrate, you also get:

• CI analytics — build trends, success rates, duration metrics across all jobs
• Flaky test detection — automatic identification of tests that flip between pass and fail
• Ask AI — natural language queries about your build data
• Multi-CI support — Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab, TeamCity, BuildKite
• TestRail, Xray, and Zephyr Scale — not just ALM, but all major TCM tools
• JIRA integration — create and sync JIRA tickets from failing builds

Migration steps

1. Sign up for BuildButler
2. Install the BuildButler Jenkins Local plugin
3. Copy your ALM credentials from the Bumblebee configuration to BuildButler System Settings
4. Copy your ALM Field Mappings XML to BuildButler System Settings
5. For each job: replace the Bumblebee post-build step with the BuildButler HP ALM Uploader post-build step, using the same Domain, Project, Test Plan, Test Lab, and Custom Properties values
6. Run a test build to verify results appear in ALM
7. Remove the Bumblebee plugin

The whole migration typically takes under an hour, even for teams with dozens of jobs.

Moving beyond Jenkins?

Bumblebee only supports Jenkins. If your team is adopting GitHub Actions or GitLab CI alongside Jenkins, Bumblebee can't follow. BuildButler supports all major CI systems with the same ALM configuration — no separate tooling for each platform. See our guides for ALM + GitHub Actions and ALM + GitLab CI.

See the full ALM integration guide for detailed configuration, or the Jenkins Local setup guide for plugin installation.