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Codebeamer vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 23, 2024

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

Codebeamer
Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
10th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.5
Number of Reviews
12
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM Engineering Lifecycle M...
Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
12th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2025, in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category, the mindshare of Codebeamer is 7.9%, up from 4.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) is 2.8%, up from 1.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
 

Featured Reviews

Christian Wilmers - PeerSpot reviewer
Good complexity, easy to set up, and integrates with everything
There are a lot of bits and pieces that need to be improved. It's like a teenager. It's no longer a startup, yet not mature yet. It's still a fairly new tool that lacks maturity right now. For example, if you compared it to Jira, which is more mature, you can see that some things are done better due to the fact that Jira is older. It needs better integration for office documents, et cetera. There could be more user-friendly integration between office documents and requirements. Users might say the UI is complex, however, the solution covers so many items, you need to accept the complexity. It's an in-depth solution. For some people, it may be better to have special setups to set up the GUI to show only specific items to make it simpler. It would be nice to have some sort of mash-up GUI, which is possible in Jira so that we can customize to roles specific to, for example, problem management, testers, et cetera. They should have their own GUI related to their roles.
Harold Pogue - PeerSpot reviewer
A complex deployment that is not stable, but is cloud-based
The team of 15 to 20 software engineers uses IBM Rational ALM and Jira for testing. They coupled different online packages together because the Duration Enterprise was impossible to use IBM Rational ALM did not help the organization and we ended up moving to another solution. The most valuable…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The traceability is so simple that I don't need to do any additional configurations related to traceability."
"The solution easily replaces IBM DOORS, which no longer offers maintenance in China."
"CodeBeamer provides full traceability, excellent collaboration, regulatory compliance, and instant reporting with its holistic approach from requirement management to testing."
"Codebeamer's API-based integration and many other integration aspects with other solutions are very powerful."
"Since implementing this solution we have better communication and information exchange with customers."
"There is a lot of complexity involved, meaning it can do many things, which can be quite useful."
"It is a stable solution."
"Codebeamer is user-friendly"
"It's easy to use."
"The solution is customizable."
"IBM Rational ALM is a very good tool. I like the management and traceability features and the test management tool. The latter is not linked with the stories and fixed management. It is really useful, and we can create test plans. We can also test some metrics related to QA."
"One of the key advantages of IBM Rational ALM is its workflow capabilities, which enable seamless collaboration between development and production teams and ensure that all stakeholders are aware of the progress and readiness of the solution. Additionally, the solution is good for integration."
"The integration with Git works well."
"The cataloging is a very valuable feature. For a lot of enterprises, they end up not knowing which applications do specific features. The cataloging helps with this. It's not that verbose, but it still gives you allowances to put in more detail."
"It is relatively easy to use and user-friendly once the setup is complete."
"The tools for requirement capture we have found very useful."
 

Cons

"The solution has a very small market share in China. It's almost like a startup."
"During migrations from other platforms to CodeBeamer, there have been instances where we encountered issues that required redoing certain tasks."
"We would like to see more industry-specific features that are tailored to the vertical markets."
"It would be helpful if Codebeamer's overall processing and integration with software like Jira could be improved."
"The search and replace feature within the tool itself could be improved."
"Certain areas in Codebeamer could be improved, like addressing small issues, glitches, or bugs."
"The primary challenge is adapting the standard product to our workflows and specific needs."
"I would like to see more, easily trackable reports."
"I think nowadays people are getting into Jira and other tools. What is happening is, this solution is becoming more traditional, whereas Jira and other tools are more attractive for the new users to learn and start using because of the graphical interfaces."
"There is not enough beginner support material in the form of FAQs or simple training to help you get started."
"The GUI is a little bit outdated."
"The features should be more intuitive. If I'm looking for something, its location should be easy to locate."
"The directory designer manager is uncivil. The design manager is clearly really unstable."
"One of the complaints from users is that they have to click buttons too many times for just a simple task. Changing this would lead to a better user experience."
"Of course it would be related to customer experience. The solution is not user friendly at all. It needs an expert to use it, although the reporting feature was okay."
"The solution can improve in the development area and the customized applications."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It is reasonably priced and in accordance with the industry standards."
"Codebeamer is not a cheap solution."
"They're not the most expensive product on the market, but they're not the cheapest either — I'd say codeBeamer ALM is moderately priced."
"Pricing is good when compared to similar ALM solutions."
"The solution is not cheap."
"This product is a little expensive and we had to pay extra to have them set it up for us."
"The price of the solution could be reduced. Many of our customers are not using all the features and this could be why our clients feel the price is too high."
"IBM Rational ALM has both monthly and yearly licensing options."
"We have a contract, but I am not aware of the details."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
30%
Computer Software Company
15%
Healthcare Company
7%
Transportation Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
23%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
8%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about codeBeamer ALM?
The platform provided the flexibility to expand our business processes, accommodating or altering them to suit the requirements of a changing environment.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for codeBeamer ALM?
As I am not involved in purchasing the product, it is difficult for me to comment on the product's pricing model.
What needs improvement with codeBeamer ALM?
Codebeamer is not completely compatible with our internal network setup, which could be improved.
What needs improvement with IBM Rational ALM?
The user interface requires significant improvement as it is overly complex. For business users with no experience in IT, it can be particularly challenging to understand the UI and create test cas...
What is your primary use case for IBM Rational ALM?
We use IBM Rational ALM as part of our overall application suite for our manufacturing company. It is used by our engineering team to capture requirements, perform testing, and manage defects. Spec...
 

Also Known As

codeBeamer ALM
IBM Engineering Rhapsody, Rational ALM, MKS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Medtronic, Align Technology, Daimler, Samsung, Harman, Dassault
Tennis Australia, WeCloud AB, Port Otago Limited, Logicalis US, Valmer, The Chevrolet Volt, Ashurst
Find out what your peers are saying about Codebeamer vs. IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
831,369 professionals have used our research since 2012.