IBM Engineering Workflow Management vs Polarion ALM comparison

IBM Engineering Workflow Management vs. Polarion ALM

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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

IBM Engineering Workflow Ma...

Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools

10th

Average Rating

6.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.3

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Software Configuration Management (4th)

Polarion ALM

Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools

7th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites (7th)

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Enterprise Agile Planning Tools category, the mindshare of IBM Engineering Workflow Management is 1.1%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Polarion ALM is 3.6%, up from 3.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Agile Planning Tools

Featured Reviews

Suvajit Chakraborty

Manager, Digital Engineering at Harman International

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.

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Dina Bindi

Information and Communication technology at CNH Industrial

Provides traceability and compliance with high flexibility

It's extremely flexible. Configuring items is straightforward and doesn't require involving the supplier each time. We find the requirement management, test management, documentation, and dashboards very effective. However, we don't use DevOps-related features, such as integration with tools like SVN or Git, because we use Azure DevOps. The aspects related to requirements, testing, changes, tasks, and agile methodology are excellent, which is why we've been using it for a long time.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It was an all-in-one solution for source code, integrated source control, defect tracking, and project planning."

"Good for managing stories, sprints, hydration and releases."

"All of the features work together to provide a powerful holistic solution - from the dashboard all the way through to security."

"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."

"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."

"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."

"Work distribution among team members and accountability for completion with a clearer picture."

More IBM Engineering Workflow Management pros

"Polarion ALM has some valuable tools for managing our targets and requirements. I think that's its best feature."

"The technical support is quite good."

"The solution offers good integration."

"Scalability is good...The integration is quite good."

"The tool helped us to more effectively and efficiently gather and structure the information (requirements, test plans, project management data, etc.), and share it with the involved stakeholders in a safe and change-controlled manner."

"You can see the work ticket and you can circulate that within the teams. You can define your flows, customize according to your needs, and you can create dashboards and create the reports according to your needs."

"It meets with everybody's needs without having to grab plugins."

"The most valuable feature is the function of the ALM system."

More Polarion ALM pros

Cons

"Improved graphics in terms of metrics and connectivity to SharePoint from Microsoft products would be beneficial."

"Some administrative tasks are difficult to perform. These could be simplified."

"Teams need clearer pictures of resource availability in charts and dashboards along with plans."

"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."

"If you have multiple projects on one server, the tool becomes very slow, and some reports take longer to load."

"Lacks ability to customize and reporting can be slow."

"It's becoming less relevant. For example, Maven has evolved, and in its later versions, there are plugins for integrating with source control systems, such as Git-based systems. Support for these plugins is diminishing."

"The solution is very heavily vendor dependent."

More IBM Engineering Workflow Management cons

"The interface for this solution needs to be made more user-friendly to provide a better user experience."

"We use PTC Windchill, and Polarion ALM doesn't have native integration, so we had to purchase the connector to integrate it with Polarion ALM. We still haven't implemented it."

"Based on my understanding, the tool's integration capabilities with multiple tools is an area of concern that Polarion needs to focus on more."

"The solution's editing capabilities need improvement."

"Integration requires a lot of effort. You typically need to work with an implementation partner to get it done. Most connectors available for Polarion ALM are paid. Unlike other vendors offering several standard connectors for free, integrating third-party software with Polarion ALM involves discussing and coordinating with the third-party software providers, which requires effort."

"Technical support needs some improvement."

"The planning and task management aspects of the solution were not that easy."

"The most important thing for them to improve should be platform-independent features. They should also provide extensive pipelines and release pipelines that we can define and we can work on."

More Polarion ALM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Licensing: The solution cost is high and should be brought down to increase competition."

"I've heard IBM Engineering Workflow Management is more expensive than other tools."

"It's an expensive investment to make, so the decision should be driven on individual requirements."

"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."

"The solution is expensive."

"You have to pay around 50-60 euros per user."

"It is an expensive product."

"Our license for Polarion ALM is yearly. And it's not the cheapest tool that we've looked at. So if we had made our decision purely based on the licensing cost, we wouldn't have selected Polarion."

"The license model is okay for large companies but would be quite expensive for smaller enterprises."

"If the pricing would come down and it was more affordable then we wouldn't have to switch."

"Software for medical devices is always expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

20%

Government

15%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

25%

Computer Software Company

15%

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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.

What do you like most about Polarion ALM?

It is a very stable solution.

What needs improvement with Polarion ALM?

I also recently suggested that CMS consider incorporating generative artificial intelligence into the system. This could greatly enhance requirement checking, improve form, content, and clarity, an...

What is your primary use case for Polarion ALM?

We use Polarion ALM for software development, including requirements management, testing, change requests, and task tracking. We set up the environment by configuring items and reports based on use...

Jira vs IBM Engineering Workflow Management

Comparisons

Compared 56% of the time

Codebeamer vs IBM Engineering Workflow Management

Compared 14% of the time

GitLab vs IBM Engineering Workflow Management

Compared 10% of the time

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs IBM Engineering Workflow Management

Compared 9% of the time

IBM Rational ClearCase vs IBM Engineering Workflow Management

Compared 6% of the time

More IBM Engineering Workflow Management Competitors

Jira vs Polarion ALM

Compared 27% of the time

Codebeamer vs Polarion ALM

Compared 26% of the time

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs Polarion ALM

Compared 16% of the time

Jama Connect vs Polarion ALM

Compared 8% of the time

PTC Integrity vs Polarion ALM

Compared 7% of the time

More Polarion ALM Competitors

Product Reports

IBM Engineering Workflow Management

Download IBM Engineering Workflow Management product report

IBM Engineering Workflow Management report

Polarion ALM

Download Polarion ALM product report

Also Known As

IBM Rational Team Concert (IBM ALM), IBM RTC

No data available

Overview

IBM Engineering Workflow Management manages plans, tasks, the project status and acts as the critical link between required and delivered work. It provides flexibility to adapt to any process, which enables companies to adopt faster release cycles and manage dependencies across both small and complex development projects. This solution offers no-charge server software and flexible pricing models. It becomes a complete IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management solution—when purchased as a set of seamlessly integrated tools: IBM Engineering Workflow Management, IBM Engineering Test Management, and IBM Engineering Requirements Management DOORS Next.

IBM

The world’s first 100% browser-based ALM enterprise solution, which enables seamless collaboration across disparate teams, multi-directionally linked work items, full traceability, accelerated productivity and automated proof of compliance.

Siemens

Sample Customers

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

Engineering Ingegneria Informatica, IBS AG, Zumtobel Group

IBM Engineering Workflow Management vs. Polarion ALM