Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

Atlassian ALM vs IBM Engineering Workflow Management comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Atlassian ALM
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites (18th)
IBM Engineering Workflow Ma...
Average Rating
6.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.3
Number of Reviews
17
Ranking in other categories
Software Configuration Management (4th), Enterprise Agile Planning Tools (10th)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Application Lifecycle Management solutions, they serve different purposes. Atlassian ALM is designed for Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites and holds a mindshare of 1.2%, down 1.6% compared to last year.
IBM Engineering Workflow Management, on the other hand, focuses on Enterprise Agile Planning Tools, holds 1.0% mindshare, up 0.8% since last year.
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
 

Featured Reviews

ZX
Scrum board feature is highly valuable and handles different user volumes
We have both small-sized and big-sized customers. The small ones generally have around 50 to 200 users. The larger ones, for example, in China, have around 15,000 platform users. So, the number of small companies is high, but the total business value comes from the big companies. Atlassian ALM can handle different user volumes. For customers with more than 500 users, we recommend deploying a high availability (HA) architecture. The solution supports both single-node and HA modes. I would rate the scalability a five out of ten. It could be better in terms of scalability with more users. It could be improved to better handle larger numbers of users. We have clients using Atlassian ALM both in China and globally. We have around 20 clients using this solution.
Suvajit Chakraborty - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers good traceability elements but UI needs improvement
There is room for improvement in the UI. The UI has to improve a lot compared to the competitive tools, like Atlassian Jira, for example. It's very easy to use. It is easy to manage and easy to use. Anybody can learn it right quickly and start with it. But IBM ELM is something where somebody has to have good knowledge, training, and understanding and then only start using it. But there's a big known knowledge curve for IBM ELM. But once that is there, it's normally; organizations do have their own internal team to basically manage it IBM ELM portfolio, the tool chain. So if they have internal teams who are doing it for quite some time, not something new, then it is definitely better. But if there's if somebody is starting new, definitely there is a knowledge curve time it can take at least a year or maybe a couple of years before they can start realizing the benefits.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"This solution fits very well into our agile product management environment."
"The main power of this tool is the integration between the different products of the Atlassian suite. We have good integration with work management with Java. This is the major strength from this provider."
"The most valuable feature is the Scrum board."
"We can track the status of test cases (passed or saved) in a single view. Based on releases and other attributes, we generate various reports and extract metrics from the data."
"Agile templates give us a standard methodology for every Agile project. Also, the ability to create our own object types and linkages to features/epics allows us to enhance the verification of feature readiness."
"The tool provides traceability and reporting, which are important for compliance and measuring progress."
"Work distribution among team members and accountability for completion with a clearer picture."
"It was an all-in-one solution for source code, integrated source control, defect tracking, and project planning."
"All of the features work together to provide a powerful holistic solution - from the dashboard all the way through to security."
"The most valuable features of the solution are highly customizable reports and visibility for all the higher management."
"Traceability reporting is inbuilt and includes all your requirements."
 

Cons

"The reports are not really customizable, which is something that they should improve on."
"There is room for improvement in the high-level project management."
"The automation for scheduling software and doing software tests should be simplified because it's complex and too rigid."
"If you have multiple projects on one server, the tool becomes very slow, and some reports take longer to load."
"I would rate the IBM Engineering Workflow Management a seven or an eight. I am leaning closer to seven based on a couple of items I mentioned that I would like to see or know more about, such as improved reporting."
"Lacks ability to customize and reporting can be slow."
"We have encountered issues with stability. We have seen where the entire system kind of goes for a toss when certain people use certain types of queries, which are very costly. Then the system kind of slows down a bit, and we have to monitor it."
"Some administrative tasks are difficult to perform. These could be simplified."
"The solution is very heavily vendor dependent."
"Improved graphics in terms of metrics and connectivity to SharePoint from Microsoft products would be beneficial."
"Teams need clearer pictures of resource availability in charts and dashboards along with plans."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a community edition available, but if the price were lower for the addons then more people would use the full version."
"Licensing: The solution cost is high and should be brought down to increase competition."
"It is not a free tool. We use a token-based licensing model, which is specific to IBM. The cost per token is around $115-$120."
"It's an expensive investment to make, so the decision should be driven on individual requirements."
"I've heard IBM Engineering Workflow Management is more expensive than other tools."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites solutions are best for your needs.
837,501 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
15%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Government
11%
Manufacturing Company
23%
Government
14%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Atlassian ALM?
The most valuable feature is the Scrum board.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Atlassian ALM?
The pricing is on the higher side. I would give it an eight out of ten, where one is low, and ten is high.
What needs improvement with Atlassian ALM?
There is room for improvement in the high-level project management. In future releases, I would like to have a planning feature for high-level project management.
What do you like most about IBM Engineering Workflow Management?
We can track the status of test cases (passed or saved) in a single view. Based on releases and other attributes, we generate various reports and extract metrics from the data.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Engineering Workflow Management?
I've heard IBM Engineering Workflow Management is more expensive than other tools. On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing a six out of ten.
What needs improvement with IBM Engineering Workflow Management?
Improved graphics in terms of metrics and connectivity to SharePoint from Microsoft products would be beneficial.
 

Also Known As

No data available
IBM Rational Team Concert (IBM ALM), IBM RTC
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Facebook, NASA, Cisco, eBay, Redfin, Toyota, Kaiser Permanente, Gilt, CSIRO, Autodesk, The Daily Telegraph, CODE, Illumnia
Telstra Corporation, Visteon, Atos SE, Panasonic Automotive Systems, IBM Global Technology Services, CareCore National, JTEKT Corp., ItaÒ BBA, Avea, CACEIS, Danske Bank Group, APIS IT
Find out what your peers are saying about Atlassian, Microsoft, Nutanix and others in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites. Updated: February 2025.
837,501 professionals have used our research since 2012.