IBM Engineering Workflow Management vs Polarion ALM comparison

IBM and Siemens are both solutions in the Enterprise Agile Planning Tools category. IBM is ranked #10 with an average rating of 6.3, while Siemens is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.3. IBM holds a 1.2% mindshare in EAP, compared to Siemens’s 4.0% mindshare. Additionally, 64% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 86% of Siemens users who would recommend it.

IBM Engineering Workflow Ma...

Read 17 IBM Engineering Workflow Management reviews

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246 Comparison Views

64% willing to recommend

Polarion ALM

Read 21 Polarion ALM reviews

1,311 Views
889 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

IBM Engineering Workflow Ma...

Polarion ALM

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

IBM Engineering Workflow Management and Polarion ALM are competing products in application lifecycle management. IBM often prevails in terms of pricing and support, while Polarion stands out for its advanced features, making it a worthwhile investment for many seeking comprehensive ALM capabilities.

Features: IBM Engineering Workflow Management is valued for its comprehensive task and project tracking, effective integration with other IBM tools, and robust change management functionalities. Polarion ALM offers extensive test management, customization options, and strong traceability features ensuring rigorous compliance, appealing to those needing versatile and powerful functionalities.

Room for Improvement: IBM Engineering Workflow Management could enhance its feature customization and improve its user interface for beginners. Additionally, providing more extensive documentation would help streamline onboarding. Polarion ALM could improve its out-of-the-box functionality and simplify its complex interface to be more user-friendly. Enhancing the extraction of quality data from management reports is another area for improvement.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM Engineering Workflow Management is recognized for its straightforward deployment and strong customer support, facilitating seamless integration into existing systems. Polarion ALM's deployment can be complex due to customization options but is supported by a responsive customer service team, offering flexibility with added complexity.

Pricing and ROI: IBM Engineering Workflow Management offers a competitive initial setup cost with a promising ROI, especially for those leveraging IBM's ecosystem. Polarion ALM, although higher in upfront costs, provides compelling ROI for organizations seeking extensive ALM features that justify the investment. The choice often hinges on whether the advanced capabilities of Polarion ALM outweigh its initial costs.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Engineering Workflow Management vs. Polarion ALM Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Engineering Workflow Management vs. Polarion ALM

March 2025

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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

6th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites (6th)

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Enterprise Agile Planning Tools category, the mindshare of IBM Engineering Workflow Management is 1.2%, up from 0.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Polarion ALM is 4.0%, up from 3.0% 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

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

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

"The tool provides traceability and reporting, which are important for compliance and measuring progress."

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

"Traceability reporting is inbuilt and includes all your requirements."

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

"The tool provides traceability and reporting, which are important for compliance and measuring progress."

"The most valuable features of the solution are highly customizable reports and visibility for all the higher management."

More IBM Engineering Workflow Management pros

"It offers good performance."

"The tool's most valuable feature is its browser experience. I rate its traceability feature a ten out of ten. From the initial stage to the release, you can manage everything through a single point."

"Polarion ALM delivers both document views and table views simultaneously and organizes configurations according to norms and standards."

"The technical support 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 is a very stable solution."

"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."

More Polarion ALM pros

Cons

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

"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."

"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."

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

"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."

More IBM Engineering Workflow Management cons

"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."

"The solution's editing capabilities need improvement."

"The configuration aspect of the solution is not easy. A person needs a lot of programming knowledge in order to successfully handle the job."

"Nowadays, the dashboard is too complex to be created."

"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."

"The solution needs to improve its user experience and graphics."

"The weak point of Polarion ALM software is about reporting and time for extraction of the data...The quality of reporting needs to improve."

"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

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

"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."

"Software for medical devices is always expensive."

"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."

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

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

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

"It is an expensive product."

"The solution is expensive."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

20%

Government

16%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

26%

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.

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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.

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What needs improvement with IBM Engineering Workflow Management?

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

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What do you like most about Polarion ALM?

It is a very stable solution.

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What needs improvement with Polarion ALM?

Polarion ALM ( /categories/application-lifecycle-management-alm-suites ) could see improvements in performance and scalability. The system’s technology is not the most current, leading to missing f...

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What is your primary use case for Polarion ALM?

Polarion ALM ( /products/polarion-alm-reviews ) is a tool that delivers both document views and table views simultaneously. It organizes configurations according to norms and standards, making it s...

See all answers

Comparisons

Jira vs IBM Engineering Workflow Management

Compared 55% of the time

Codebeamer vs IBM Engineering Workflow Management

Compared 13% of the time

GitLab vs IBM Engineering Workflow Management

Compared 11% of the time

Endevor vs IBM Engineering Workflow Management

Compared 7% of the time

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs IBM Engineering Workflow Management

Compared 7% of the time

More IBM Engineering Workflow Management Competitors

Codebeamer vs Polarion ALM

Compared 29% of the time

Jira 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 6% of the time

More Polarion ALM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Engineering Workflow Management

April 2025

IBM Engineering Workflow Management report

Download IBM Engineering Workflow Management product report

Buyer's Guide

Polarion ALM

March 2025

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

Buyer's Guide

IBM Engineering Workflow Management vs. Polarion ALM

March 2025

Free Report: IBM Engineering Workflow Management vs. Polarion ALM

Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Engineering Workflow Management vs. Polarion ALM and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

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