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IBM Rational ALM vs Microsoft Azure DevOps comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM Rational ALM
Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
13th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
18
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Microsoft Azure DevOps
Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
130
Ranking in other categories
Release Automation (1st), Enterprise Agile Planning Tools (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2024, in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category, the mindshare of IBM Rational ALM is 2.5%, up from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure DevOps is 21.8%, down from 26.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
 

Featured Reviews

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…
Akshat Prakash - PeerSpot reviewer
Allows us to deploy code to production without releasing certain features immediately and agile project management capabilities offer resource-leveling
My company has experienced benefits from using it or from recent updates in Azure Pipelines. For instance, we can manage different code versions from the same repository across different environments. We also use feature flags; the code is deployed, but the feature can be made visible to the end user at a later time. Additionally, as part of the deployment, we integrate automated and regression testing, which stops the deployment if testing fails, thus preventing regression bugs. This saves time and increases productivity by reducing the need for manual testing. Lastly, it integrates with the project management aspects, allowing us to link code deployments with project milestones. Azure DevOps supported our shift towards DevOps culture or practices. We shifted to the cloud environment and started migrating from our data centers about eight or nine years back. It has been a long journey. However, we have used Azure DevOps for almost five to six years in every project. We also use automation testing in Azure, so we have an integrated test suite that allows us to perform functional and regression testing effectively via the Azure DevOps system.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"I would rate the stability of this product a nine out of ten."
"At the same time, if you're working from the architect or the designing team you, it's quite easy to manage the resources online."
"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."
"We have something called the GC (global configuration), which is a unique feature compared to any other competitor we have in the ALM space."
"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."
"The tools for requirement capture we have found very useful."
"The integration with Git works well."
"Detailed logs allow us to pinpoint the exact cause of any issues, making troubleshooting efficient and accurate."
"The most valuable features are continuous integration and deployment, and simplicity."
"It is good for the purpose it is designed for. It is good for maintaining a repository of application code, creating pipelines for deploying the code, building the code, and deploying the code. It can be easily used by developers. There are no issues."
"The most valuable feature of the solution is task management."
"The initial setup is quick and easy."
"This solution works with other Microsoft solutions pretty easily. It was easy to integrate everything into all the other tools that we were using. It integrates very seamlessly."
"It is easy to use. The shared repository is useful. Everything is in one environment."
"Provides us with user histories."
 

Cons

"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 GUI is a little bit outdated."
"IBM Rational ALM should remove the features not used by the customers and keep this product as lightweight as possible."
"I would like to see better reporting features. The out-of-box reporting is - I don't want to say limited - but the focus is on the Scrum and Sprint reports. We need more reporting features regarding the history of the work, tracking it more deeply."
"The product must be more user-friendly."
"Some improvements to the user interface (UI) would be helpful, such as exposing more services to make it easier to customize to the needs of each customer."
"There is not enough beginner support material in the form of FAQs or simple training to help you get started."
"The directory designer manager is uncivil. The design manager is clearly really unstable."
"They could provide clearer guidance on deployment practices for the product."
"The solution should have fewer updates."
"When we don't have some permissions, we have to research how to get them."
"Microsoft Azure DevOps could improve by having better integration with other email servers."
"It should be able to handle the different types. There is ecosystems engineering, and there is software applications engineering. There is a need to bring these teams together, but the disciplines don't integrate very well, and so it won't work."
"It should be easier to manage Licenses especially because it's in the cloud."
"Templates could be improved."
"Microsoft could focus on refining the reporting and dashboard elements of Azure DevOps to improve it."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"IBM Rational ALM has both monthly and yearly licensing options."
"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."
"We have a contract, but I am not aware of the details."
"This product is a little expensive and we had to pay extra to have them set it up for us."
"The solution is not cheap."
"The costs are moderate and justify the value provided."
"There are additional costs for some functionality, such as increased scalability."
"There is a license for this solution."
"The price of this solution is fair."
"It is relatively inexpensive compared to other solutions that necessitate servers and physical hardware."
"The price is reasonable for the solution."
"I am not aware of any licensing subscriptions for the solution."
"It's a good tool, quite rich, it has a lot of features, and quite a lot of analytical capabilities which are built on top of it so that you can see how your projects are going and all that stuff. It's a good tool."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
24%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
7%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Computer Software Company
12%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
9%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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...
Which is better - Jira or Microsoft Azure DevOps?
Jira is a great centralized tool for just about everything, from local team management to keeping track of products and work logs. It is easy to implement and navigate, and it is stable and scalabl...
Which is better - TFS or Azure DevOps?
TFS and Azure DevOps are different in many ways. TFS was designed for admins, and only offers incremental improvements. In addition, TFS seems complicated to use and I don’t think it has a very fri...
What do you like most about Microsoft Azure DevOps?
Valuable features for project management and tracking in Azure DevOps include a portal displaying test results, check-in/check-out activity, and developer/tester productivity.
 

Also Known As

Rational ALM, MKS
Azure DevOps, VSTS, Visual Studio Team Services, MS Azure DevOps
 

Learn More

 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Tennis Australia, WeCloud AB, Port Otago Limited, Logicalis US, Valmer, The Chevrolet Volt, Ashurst
Alaska Airlines, Iberia Airlines, Columbia, Skype
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Rational ALM vs. Microsoft Azure DevOps and other solutions. Updated: October 2024.
816,636 professionals have used our research since 2012.