IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs Rally Software comparison

IBM and Broadcom are both solutions in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category. IBM is ranked #13 with an average rating of 7.2, while Broadcom is ranked #10 with an average rating of 7.0. IBM holds a 3.9% mindshare in ALM, compared to Broadcom’s 5.8% mindshare. Additionally, 76% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

IBM Engineering Lifecycle M...

Read 19 IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) reviews

1,497 Views
1,482 Comparison Views

76% willing to recommend

Rally Software

Read 120 Rally Software reviews

3,558 Views
3,309 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

IBM Engineering Lifecycle M...

Rally Software

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 12, 2025

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management and Rally Software are competitors in the enterprise application lifecycle management space. Rally Software is viewed as more feature-rich, appealing to users looking for comprehensive capabilities, while IBM ELM offers more competitive pricing and strong customer support.

Features: IBM ELM is known for robust integration capabilities, excellent traceability features, and solid support for large-scale projects. Rally Software stands out with its detailed reporting, precise agile project management, and advanced planning tools, especially for organizations deeply invested in agile methodologies.

Room for Improvement: IBM ELM could enhance its user interface to be more intuitive and improve its flexibility for different methodologies. It might also focus on expanding agile-specific features. Rally Software may benefit from more straightforward technical configuration processes and reducing dependence on in-house expertise for setup. Improving flexibility in pricing models could also attract more customers.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM ELM offers a flexible deployment model with strong customer service, helping users transition smoothly and providing substantial support during deployment. Rally Software provides a straightforward deployment process but may require more reliance on in-house expertise for technical configurations, though its customer service is effective.

Pricing and ROI: IBM ELM features a cost-effective entry price and favorable ROI due to its strong support and integration features, which help in lowering operational costs. Though Rally Software is positioned at a higher price, its extensive feature set often justifies the investment by driving productivity gains over time. While IBM presents a more accessible option initially, Rally Software aligns better with organizations that prioritize advanced feature sets.

To learn more, read our detailed IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs. Rally Software Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs. Rally Software

September 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 Lifecycle M...

Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

13th

Average Rating

7.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Rally Software

Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

10th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

120

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Agile Planning Tools (6th)

Mindshare comparison

As of October 2025, in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category, the mindshare of IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) is 3.9%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rally Software is 5.8%, down from 6.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Rally Software	5.8%
IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)	3.9%
Other	90.3%

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

Featured Reviews

Juergen Albrecht

Managing Director at CCC Systems Engineering Suisse GmbH

Combining tools for effective data analysis while customization and integration need improvement

The most valuable feature is how IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) allows me to present to the customer what the actual software, even hardware, will do. It helps them gain an impression of the complexity of the functionality and find an easier way to decide whether to implement it. A picture says more than one thousand words, which is why I work with the combination of ELM and the specification of DOORS. The automation capabilities I built use column-based scripts for analysis to search, fetch, and transfer information. When I open modules, it automatically analyzes the changes since the last opening by me.

Read full review

Rakhee Srivastava

Sr. Information Architect and Principal Consultant UX at Tech Mahindra Limited

Real-time dashboards provide clear insights into project progress and team velocity

Rally Software is easy to use for Agile project methodology because it follows Scrum and Kanban, helping with sprint planning and backlog management. Rally Software provides real-time dashboards for different kinds of stakeholders and governance, giving clear insights into project progress, team velocity, and potential risks. Backlog management is present in the product, allowing prioritization of tasks. The dashboards provide all types of insights through analytics. Capacity planning helps optimize resource allocation, ensuring balanced workload and realistic sprint commitments for our projects. The solution integrates with GitHub, and we can also integrate with Excel and CI/CD pipelines.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"You can customize the board according to your needs."

"The solution is customizable."

"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."

"The integration with Git works well."

"The most valuable feature is how IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) allows me to present to the customer what the actual software, even hardware, will do."

"The tools for requirement capture we have found very useful."

"The planning feature is rich with Scrum concepts: Sprint, Sprint retrospective, the rules in the Scrum framework."

"The word emulation and importing is good."

More IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) pros

"It helps with getting the alignment between strategy and execution for the product teams, all the way down to the delivery teams."

"When it comes to the valuable features of Rally Software, it excels at burn-down charts, burn-up charts, and road mapping once it's set up. I particularly appreciated the new feature for releases and road mapping, which worked exceptionally well."

"The most valuable features of Rally Software are the executive dashboards, ease of use, and many other features. They have encapsulated everything that a GI can do, such as monitoring, maintaining, and then releasing. It's continuous integration and development."

"It drives the conversation behind some of the pain points the teams have, based on the data that we're able to pull out of the system. As a result of that, we're able to make better decisions, to become better as a whole."

"Gives me a dashboard where I can see what things are not being worked on, what things are blocked."

"We use the roadmap features, and we're getting better at using dates to use the roadmap so that we can see if we're on target for work."

"With this product, searching for historical information or the evolution of the requirement, detecting conflict between projects has helped a lot."

"The visibility it brings to the plan, the ability to capture tasks, and trace them all the way through the life cycle. Providing that visibility helps both me and the team, or teams, to be able to understand where we are in the development process."

More Rally Software pros

Cons

"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."

"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."

"The GUI is a little bit outdated."

"The user interface requires significant improvement as it is overly complex."

"There is not enough beginner support material in the form of FAQs or simple training to help you get started."

"The solution can improve in the development area and the customized applications."

"In the next release, we expect a traceability metrics configuration where we can configure the user stories. We also expect them to improve or simplify the query process."

"Improvement is needed in bridging DNG and Rhapsody and vice versa for better data exchange from both sides with some trigger technologies."

More IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) cons

"The solution is expensive."

"We want Rally to generate OKRs, to allow teams to record the OKRs, and then the OKRs can be mapped to the epics and there is organizational alignment."

"There's a lot of support for Scrum and Agile, but it needs something for the Kanban side."

"It is hard to track the changes. For example, we're in sprint 25, and then we have 26, 27, 28, and 29. Throughout that whole time, we're developing pipelines in Azure, moving to GitHub, creating pipelines, and working with teams. But sometimes, we need to revisit specific decisions made in previous sprints, like pipeline details. Maybe it's in our Azure Wiki, GitHub, or Teams, but it's not always consistent. I wish I could search for all tasks or stories related to that particular effort without needing to know everyone's individual stories or features."

"I'd like the ability to customize reports without having to incur Professional Services, or having to write my own code GitHub and then implement that as a custom report. That's untenable. It's not sustainable."

"It's a bit cumbersome to manage the Project Picker. As we sunset teams or projects close out - but we still have test cases tied to those teams or projects that are being used in other spaces - we have this monstrous list in the Project Picker that becomes really difficult to manage and find, and we can't clean that up ourselves. It would be nice if it was easier to do that and not lose your history."

"In Rally Software, the connection with GitLab and GitHub needs improvement."

"I think there needs to be some simplification. The team-level side can be challenging and complicated."

More Rally Software cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."

"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."

"IBM Rational ALM has both monthly and yearly licensing options."

"It is expensive and may not be worthwhile for a small company."

"We are always looking for a discount, if the solution was less expensive it would be a benefit."

"Rally Software costs $50 a month, and for a base account, that price is acceptable."

"I don't know the exact pricing, but I think the tool is priced high. They provide quality workmanship, good software, regular upgrades, and they're always attentive and listen to users. Everything comes with a price. I think it's an expensive solution compared to Jira or other competitors, but it's a complete package."

"I understand it's a little more expensive. That is why many people prefer Jira."

"Frankly, pricing is expensive and needs to be carefully planned for when budgeting."

"The license costs are fairly high as compared to some of the other solutions out there."

"From a price point, it's a cost effective solution for our needs."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Manufacturing Company

23%

Computer Software Company

13%

Government

12%

Comms Service Provider

Manufacturing Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Insurance Company

Computer Software Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	5
Midsize Enterprise	4
Large Enterprise	12

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	13
Midsize Enterprise	13
Large Enterprise	110

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Rational ALM?

The solution is customizable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Rational ALM?

Improvement is needed in bridging DNG and Rhapsody and vice versa for better data exchange from both sides with some trigger technologies. This would provide a visual reminder of changes in a modul...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for IBM Rational ALM?

Most of my primary use cases involve the combination of IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) ( /products/ibm-engineering-lifecycle-management-elm-reviews ) and DOORS, including both Classic D...

See all answers

What do you like most about Rally Software?

Rally offers many features that help the management of activities, coordination, alignment and reports, which applies agility across the organization. If I were to highlight a particular feature, i...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rally Software?

Rally Software is affordable because our customers also prefer it, and I have never heard concerns about pricing preventing us from using this tool.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Rally Software?

While I'm not heavily involved in project management tools, I am familiar with these tools. One area for improvement might be the rigidity in role and access configurations, which require many proc...

See all answers

Comparisons

Jira vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)

Compared 23% of the time

Codebeamer vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)

Compared 17% of the time

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)

Compared 12% of the time

Polarion ALM vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)

Compared 10% of the time

OpenText Software Delivery Management vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)

Compared 4% of the time

More IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) Competitors

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs Rally Software

Compared 29% of the time

Jira vs Rally Software

Compared 26% of the time

OpenText Software Delivery Management vs Rally Software

Compared 5% of the time

Jira Align vs Rally Software

Compared 5% of the time

PTC Integrity vs Rally Software

Compared 3% of the time

More Rally Software Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)

October 2025

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) report

Download IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) product report

Buyer's Guide

Rally Software

October 2025

Download Rally Software product report

Also Known As

IBM Engineering Rhapsody, Rational ALM, MKS

CA Agile Central, Rally Enterprise, CA Agile Training, CA Agile Coaching, CA Agile Academy, CA Agile Management , CA ALM

Overview

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management stands out for its robust Agile Scrum planning, lifecycle traceability, and tool management, offering cloud-based configurability and strong collaboration features.

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management provides rich capabilities for Agile project management, facilitating requirements and test management, configuration management, and version control. Its integration with IBM Doors supports comprehensive requirements handling, and the cloud-based platform enhances collaborative efficiency across teams. Despite needing advances in user-friendliness and reporting, ELM's global configuration and compliance features make it invaluable in demanding environments.

What are the key features of IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management?

Scrum-based planning: Supports Agile methodologies with rich planning tools.
Lifecycle traceability: Offers complete traceability across development stages.
Customizable workflows: Adaptable workflows with Kanban for flexibility.
Git integration: Supports efficient version control and collaboration.
Global Configuration: Manages complex configurations globally.
Compliance and reporting: Ensures robust auditing and comprehensive reporting capabilities.

What benefits should be evaluated in reviews?

Collaboration: Enhanced sharing across platforms for seamless teamwork.
Cost-effectiveness: Delivers efficient tools that optimize project spend.
Comprehensive requirement handling: Facilitates detailed requirement management through IBM Doors integration.

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management is vital in sectors like automotive and manufacturing, where it implements Agile frameworks to manage requirements, conduct testing, and handle defects. It integrates into development pipelines ensuring live traceability and visibility, supporting critical engineering processes efficiently.

IBM

With Rally Software, you can plan, prioritize, manage, track, and continuously improve your work so that you can deliver the value that your customers need with speed, quality, and efficiency. Our enterprise-class Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) SaaS platform provides visibility into progress, roadblocks, and dependencies across multiple teams, projects, and programs. This allows you to align to your strategic goals and create better business results, and to do it all in a single system of record.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

Tennis Australia, WeCloud AB, Port Otago Limited, Logicalis US, Valmer, The Chevrolet Volt, Ashurst

Physicians Mutual, Harvard Pilgrim HealthCare, Editora Abril, Tata Communications, Level 3 Communications, Seagate, TomTom, Philips, Hiscox, Physicians Mutual, MYOB

Buyer's Guide

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs. Rally Software

September 2025

Free Report: IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs. Rally Software

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