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Microsoft Azure DevOps vs OpenText ALM Octane comparison

Microsoft and OpenText are both solutions in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category. Microsoft is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.2, while OpenText is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.0. Microsoft holds a 18.2% mindshare in ALM, compared to OpenText’s 6.3% mindshare. Additionally, 95% of Microsoft users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of OpenText users who would recommend it.
Microsoft Azure DevOps
Read 132 Microsoft Azure DevOps reviews
  • 12,858 Views
  • 10,408 Comparison Views
95% willing to recommend
OpenText ALM Octane
Read 40 OpenText ALM Octane reviews
  • 4,876 Views
  • 2,689 Comparison Views
92% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

OpenText ALM Octane and Microsoft Azure DevOps compete in the realm of Agile and DevOps tools. ALM Octane stands out in areas requiring deep integration with other tools, while Azure DevOps is favored for broader DevOps pipelines and its seamless integration with Microsoft products.

Features: OpenText ALM Octane shines with its integrated toolset that supports Agile management, requirements, and test management, ensuring end-to-end traceability. It provides seamless integration with popular DevOps tools. Azure DevOps offers comprehensive DevOps pipeline capabilities, strong CI/CD processes, and superior integration with Microsoft products, making it highly effective for extensive DevOps operations.

Room for Improvement: ALM Octane could better integrate cross-project test management and improve its requirements module along with workspace management. Users wish for enhanced integration of traditional ALM and Agile methodologies. Azure DevOps could strengthen its integration with third-party tools, simplify its interface, and enhance its reporting functions for a more streamlined experience.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: OpenText ALM Octane is generally deployed on-premises, with users valuing strong customer service and direct R&D interactions, despite occasional delays in communication. Microsoft Azure DevOps, available in cloud and hybrid models, is praised for effortless integration with Microsoft tools and responsive technical support, though there's a need for more global user support.

Pricing and ROI: OpenText ALM Octane is perceived as expensive compared to open-source options, with its ROI tied to integration and automation gains, eliciting mixed feedback. Azure DevOps offers competitive pricing, especially for users of other Microsoft services, with cost-effective licensing and scalability options. Its ROI is mainly realized through faster deployment cycles within integrated Microsoft environments.

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To learn more, read our detailed Microsoft Azure DevOps vs. OpenText ALM Octane Report (Updated: February 2025).
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure DevOps vs. OpenText ALM Octane
February 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

Microsoft Azure DevOps
Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
2nd
Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
132
Ranking in other categories
Release Automation (1st)
OpenText ALM Octane
Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
8th
Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
8th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
40
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure DevOps is 18.2%, down from 24.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of OpenText ALM Octane is 6.3%, up from 5.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
 

Q&A Highlights

MA
Apr 07, 2020
What is the biggest difference between Micro Focus ALM Octane and Microsoft Azure DevOps?
Azure DevOps is well suited if you have a big team that is collaborating their codes and need to have devops pipeline for all build and release work. Also since this tool provides bug management facility, you don't need to purchase any other tool for that purpose. Moreover if you have your infrastructure built over Azure cloud then this is a best match for your requirements as it integrates well with it. If someone is already using ALM Octane, then it is worth the pain to go through the upgrade process to get the current versions. If you need it to tie into Jira, it can do that. Just be prepared for a rough road. If you have some other product that you use for DevOps, PM, and QA, you will probably be better off sticking with what you have. DaVita also uses TFS, but not in a full implementation (i.e. not with a build server for code deployment), so for them, ALM makes a lot of sense. If you are using TFS with a build server, there are other methodologies that won't end up making you want to pull your hair out trying to make it integrate with what you are using.
See all answers
 

Featured Reviews

Ivan Angelov - PeerSpot reviewer
Facilitates agile transformation with potential for enhanced intuitiveness
What I liked about the solution is that it offers numerous features that are not available by default unless you are agile. Transitioning from the traditional Waterfall model to an agile methodology was challenging for us. Until 2020, our team predominantly worked with the Waterfall approach, using local tools like ServiceNow. We had a few team members who were familiar with Agile ISO, but none had experience with Azure. Therefore, we pursued Azure certification at the AZ-900 level. Our company organized a training session with a certified Azure expert, which was extremely beneficial for adopting best practices during the initial three months. This preparation helped us get accustomed to the new tool, as transitioning to a new system invariably requires time. Managing a pipeline of deliverables became significantly easier with this solution. We utilized it for stories and integrated change management with Azure DevOps. Eventually, everything related to the environment was organized there, enabling us to follow up and track progress with our technical engineers on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis. Reports were automatically generated and sent to management, offering them insights into our progress concerning the predefined roadmap.
Read full review
GeorgNauerz - PeerSpot reviewer
Makes team collaboration between IT and non-IT users easier with more transparency
The user experience is a lot better than any tool that I have used before. Overall, it is great. It has a smooth interface, which is very user-friendly. It makes it easier to work together and have more transparency and customization, which is very good. There are a lot of features where you can add fields, input individual fields, and input rules, like templated rule-based interaction between entities. The Backlog management is really interesting, because it is all in one place. You don't have a feature here and a feature there, instead you have the Backlog and testing using different backup items, like user storage features and tasks, all in one place. In addition, we are able to write documents, which we can transfer to backup items. Then, we can test them in the same solution without switching tools, or even switching from one part of the tool to another part, because it is all in one place. We use the solution’s Backlog and Team Backlog capabilities. They make our DevOps processes easier through transparency and asset collaboration.
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

"The most valuable feature is that we can run integrations with DevOps. From a QA perspective and a testing perspective, we can run those tests and integrate automation tools. Then we can run those tests as part of the deployment process. Every time we are deploying something, it automatically runs all the tests."
"I like the cloud infrastructure of Microsoft Azure DevOps."
"Provides agile management of projects."
"It's a complete solution that has everything you need."
"The solution is easy to implement and easy to use."
"The creation of test plans is valuable and I like the reporting features."
"The automated bill feature is most valuable. As with most software developers, I can build code on my machine, but if one of my coworkers can't build the same code on theirs, there are always issues in trying to track it down. The automated bill process makes it a lot easier to track down where the issues are and find out what bugs aren't being included for whatever reason."
"I definitely like the pipelines and the ease of management once you're in an enterprise."
More Microsoft Azure DevOps pros
"It's more streamlined because we have it all under one umbrella. And once the business requirements and rules have been created, we can do test cases and apply them to the business rules."
"The integration points are very good. Octane gives us a window not only into our manual testing, but also our automation testing and our performance testing. We can see all results from all three streams of testing in one place."
"The most valuable feature of Micro Focus ALM Octane is the reports. We are able to do customization."
"We like Micro Focus ALM Octane because its performance is okay, and its stability is okay, so we use it a lot. The platform is easy to use."
"The most important feature is the integration among all the different features in just one tool: Agile management system, requirements management system, test management, defects management, automatic test execution. Really, if you're looking at other tools, you will never find all that integrated into just one tool with all the traceability, with all the elements in just one place."
"It is a very stable solution. Stability-wise, I rate the solution a ten out of ten."
"There are a lot of predefined reports. We can attach additional reports for users, like who worked on what defect and when, as well as what is the status of the release compared to the previous release. It is really endless. All the data is really linked together. Then, if all the data is linked together, there is an option to prepare reports out of it. We are very impressed with its reporting capabilities."
"The platform's most valuable feature is pipeline integration or continuous integration services."
More OpenText ALM Octane pros
 

Cons

"Azure has not yet advanced to the performance level of the other major competitors and is missing integration with important technologies."
"The tool has a logical link between epic feature, user story, and task, but when you try to generate a report to show the delivery progress against a feature, it is not easy. To see the percentage completion for a feature or progress of any delivery, it is not easy to draw a report."
"The functions have too much dependency right now, so it makes it really, really hard to upgrade and make a change in the code."
"Improving the metrics that are readily available on the dashboard would be very helpful."
"Microsoft could focus on refining the reporting and dashboard elements of Azure DevOps to improve it."
"Azure DevOps is set up more for development and less for testing. If it is set up correctly, everyone can use it better, but it was set up from a development point of view, which means it is lacking in what I need from a testing perspective. Just like any other tool, it depends on how it is configured. I am not happy with the way it is set up. It is configured more from a development side, and it doesn't necessarily cater to all the other areas that probably need to use it, such as testing data, etc."
"It would be very useful if it had better integration with Microsoft Word because we would like to be able to define the priority requirement document and add it to different stages of the backlog."
"The tool was developed for Agile project methodology, but I've noticed that there has also been a try to incorporate what is typically done in MS Project, which is for more sequential Waterfall projects. The problem with that is that it is half-baked for Waterfall projects. If you're going to do it, then either go all the way and allow us to use the tool for both or don't do it at all."
More Microsoft Azure DevOps cons
"Updating items, sorting, bulk updates—these things could have a bit more flexibility, but it's still possible to do them."
"I would like to see the mobile testing improved so that we can simply select a mobile device, then specify what parameters we want, and the testing will be run based on that."
"The tool's price is high, making it an area where improvement is high."
"The limitation of Octane is that we can't do a release outside of the sprint. We can only plan the release in the sprint. With Agile and JIRA tools, we can plan the release outside the sprint and do a global release of all the projects from the sprint."
"Globally, I don't see many major points of improvement. It's mostly plenty of little things, and it's weird to me that they are not in the product yet. They are really details, but they're annoying details... Today, in the tool, we've got plenty of assets we can handle, like requirements, user storage, defects, tasks and so on. And to all of those elements, we can add comments. We can add comments to any asset in Octane but not to tasks. It's just impossible to understand why it's not available for the tasks because it's available everywhere else. Similarly, for attachments, you can attach files absolutely everywhere except on automated runs, which is, again, awkward. I don't understand why on this element, in particular, you cannot do it. It's little touches like that."
"We've only had a few stability issues. Generally, we have issues following any deployment they do, so if they do a deployment on a Sunday, then we may have a couple of issues on a Monday or Tuesday."
"Currently, Micro Focus ALM Octane is considered an old-world tool in the industry and lacks the perception of being a new-age tool among its customers."
"There is an opportunity for them to do a little more with the dashboarding. We still feel that HPE Quality Center/HPE ALM reporting is very powerful. We talked with R&D, and there are some things on their roadmap, but at the same time, their strategy is to connect Octane with visualization tools such as Power BI."
More OpenText ALM Octane cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing costs are reasonable."
"Microsoft Azure DevOps is free for up to five users and allows you to track a maximum of three projects."
"The price of this solution is fair."
"Its pricing is reasonable for the number of features that you get and the functionality that you can utilize for the agile delivery, which is what we are using it for. I found it extremely cost-effective."
"The solution is expensive."
"The pricing is very competitive because of the whole development cycle by Azure DevOps. You don't have to buy and integrate several different tools."
"The price is reasonable, but of course, you can find others that are cheaper such as Atlassian."
"We pay a monthly license for Microsoft Azure DevOps."
More Microsoft Azure DevOps pricing and cost advice
"The comparison is always with Jira, so the pricing of Octane is a bit on the higher side. But if you look at what you have to add to Jira, on the plug-in side, to have the same abilities you have with Octane, you're more or less even, or even ahead with Octane."
"It's expensive. HPE products, and now Micro Focus, have always been expensive. The license is not cheap, and it will always be a challenge, particularly for small organizations like ours."
"Microsoft is a big challenge for Micro Focus when it comes to pricing because they are much cheaper. But it definitely depends on the complexity of the environment. If it has multiple technologies, at that point, looking at other options and Microsoft would be a feasible approach."
"Going forward, I think we will want to explore adding more licenses."
"It will be as expensive as ALM.NET, if not more expensive. But here's a good tip: If you have ALM.NET, you are able to share your licenses from ALM.NET to Octane. You just have to define a dedicated number of licenses on ALM.NET and then you can share them with ALM Octane, with some configuration effort. This is something that you have to take into account, that there is a possibility of such license sharing that could decrease your costs. Compared to open-source tools, the price the ALM Octane is definitely higher, in terms of the licensing cost."
"I rate the product price an eight on a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive. The product is neither cheap nor expensive."
"Pricing is the weakest point. It is expensive, but the tool has plenty of features. The main problem we have is that the pricing is very high compared to some other solutions."
"The price of Micro Focus ALM Octane is too high compared to other solutions."
More OpenText ALM Octane pricing and cost advice
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Answers from the Community

MA
Apr 7, 2020
Apr 7, 2020
What is the biggest difference between Micro Focus ALM Octane and Microsoft Azure DevOps?
Azure DevOps is well suited if you have a big team that is collaborating their codes and need to have devops pipeline for all build and release work. Also since this tool provides bug management facility, you don't need to purchase any other tool for that purpose. Moreover if you have your infrastructure built over Azure cloud then this is a best match for your requirements as it integrates wel...
See 2 answers
RM
Mar 17, 2020
Sadly, I have no experience with Micro Focus ALM, however, such facts may well hint at the answer to your question. By contrast, Azure DevOps has gained an incredible following, based on accelerating solid reputation, leaving many competitors behind. Also, as has often been stated, "No one ever got fired for buying Microsoft." That said, there are fact-based comparisons, which actually rate Azure DevOps higher (e.g., https://www.trustradius.com/compare-products/azure-devops-vs-micro-focus-application-lifecycle-management-quality-center-alm-qc).
Read full answer
BR
Apr 7, 2020
Azure DevOps is well suited if you have a big team that is collaborating their codes and need to have devops pipeline for all build and release work. Also since this tool provides bug management facility, you don't need to purchase any other tool for that purpose. Moreover if you have your infrastructure built over Azure cloud then this is a best match for your requirements as it integrates well with it. If someone is already using ALM Octane, then it is worth the pain to go through the upgrade process to get the current versions. If you need it to tie into Jira, it can do that. Just be prepared for a rough road. If you have some other product that you use for DevOps, PM, and QA, you will probably be better off sticking with what you have. DaVita also uses TFS, but not in a full implementation (i.e. not with a build server for code deployment), so for them, ALM makes a lot of sense. If you are using TFS with a build server, there are other methodologies that won't end up making you want to pull your hair out trying to make it integrate with what you are using.
Read full answer
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
9%
Financial Services Firm
27%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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...
See all answers
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...
See all answers
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.
See all answers
Is Jira better or would you go with Micro Focus ALM Octane?
Hi Netanya, Basically , it all depends on the use cases for your environment and the business needs. Hope the below data may be relevant to you for identifying your needs and deciding on the approp...
See all answers
What do you like most about Micro Focus ALM Octane?
The platform's most valuable feature is pipeline integration or continuous integration services.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Micro Focus ALM Octane?
The tool's price is extremely high. When I was using Micro Focus, there were ten licenses, costing around 1,38,000, which was outrageous.
See all answers
 

Comparisons

GitLab vs Microsoft Azure DevOps Logo
GitLab vs Microsoft Azure DevOps
Compared 38% of the time
Jira vs Microsoft Azure DevOps Logo
Jira vs Microsoft Azure DevOps
Compared 16% of the time
Rally Software vs Microsoft Azure DevOps Logo
Rally Software vs Microsoft Azure DevOps
Compared 7% of the time
OpenText ALM / Quality Center vs Microsoft Azure DevOps Logo
OpenText ALM / Quality Center vs Microsoft Azure DevOps
Compared 5% of the time
Planview AgilePlace vs Microsoft Azure DevOps Logo
Planview AgilePlace vs Microsoft Azure DevOps
Compared 1% of the time
More Microsoft Azure DevOps Competitors
Jira vs OpenText ALM Octane Logo
Jira vs OpenText ALM Octane
Compared 51% of the time
OpenText ALM / Quality Center vs OpenText ALM Octane Logo
OpenText ALM / Quality Center vs OpenText ALM Octane
Compared 27% of the time
TFS vs OpenText ALM Octane Logo
TFS vs OpenText ALM Octane
Compared 3% of the time
Rally Software vs OpenText ALM Octane Logo
Rally Software vs OpenText ALM Octane
Compared 3% of the time
GitLab vs OpenText ALM Octane Logo
GitLab vs OpenText ALM Octane
Compared 2% of the time
More OpenText ALM Octane Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure DevOps
February 2025
Microsoft Azure DevOps reportDownload Microsoft Azure DevOps product report
Buyer's Guide
OpenText ALM Octane
February 2025
OpenText ALM Octane reportDownload OpenText ALM Octane product report
 

Also Known As

Azure DevOps, VSTS, Visual Studio Team Services, MS Azure DevOps
Micro Focus ALM Octane, Micro Focus Octane
 

Overview

Microsoft Azure DevOps is a cloud service that enables developers to collaborate on code development projects and create and deploy applications quicker than ever before. The service helps unite developers, project managers, and software development experts through a collaborative experience while using the application. For the users' convenience, Azure DevOps offers the user cloud services through Azure DevOps Services or an on-premises service using Azure DevOps Server. In addition, it supports integration with additional services and adding extensions, including the ability for the user to create their own custom extensions. 

Azure DevOps provides a variety of unified features that can be accessed through their web browser or IDE client, such as:

  • Azure Pipelines - Develop and deploy services to support ongoing application integration and delivery. Azure pipelines, which work with almost every project type and most languages, will automatically test code projects in order to make them available to others.

  • Azure Artifacts - Share packages and integrate package sharing between teams. Packages include NuGet, npm, and Maven, in addition to other private and public sources. Developers can now share and consume packages with other developers from different public registries.

  • Azure Repos - Offers source control of your code through Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC) or Git repositories. Developers can now keep track of any changes that are made in their code over the course of their project.

  • Azure Test Plans - Offers continuous and manual/exploratory app testing through several tools. Test Suites, or a collection of Test Cases, are grouped together in a container called a Test Plan.

  • Azure Boards - Provides a suite of Agile tools to track work, support planning, code defects, and general issues while using Kanban and Scrum software. Teams are in need of tools that are flexible and will help them grow. Azure Boards is a service that helps developers manage their software projects. 

Benefits of Microsoft Azure DevOps

Microsoft Azure DevOps offers many benefits, including:

  • A quick setup and easy deployment
  • An elastic scale
  • Exceptional security
  • No-maintenance operations
  • Effortless collaboration through domains
  • The ability to create and deploy products faster than traditional software

Reviews from Real Users

Microsoft Azure DevOps stands out among its competitors for a variety of reasons. Two major ones are its ability to forecast how long each task will take and the ability for users to follow the entire development process.

PeerSpot viewers note the effectiveness of this solution. An executive chief operating officer for a cloud provider notes, “We can forecast tasks and the number of hours a task will take and can compare it with how long a task actually takes.” 

Carlos H., a product and system director at SPCM, writes, “I think the most usable thing is that you can follow the whole progress of the development process. This makes it very useful for us.”

Microsoft

OpenText ALM Octane helps organizations implement a “quality everywhere” approach and improve Agile and DevOps development and testing processes to improve the flow of work across the software delivery value stream. You can tightly align quality efforts from development to release, employ a broad range of tests anchored by automation, and continuously monitor and improve for increased throughput. OpenText fosters an open approach so that quality is visible, traceable, and continuously improved. By synchronizing quality and testing with Agile and DevOps processes, risks are mitigated early in the software delivery value stream – speeding the way for faster delivery and improved customer satisfaction.

ALM Octane facilitates a tailored and scalable approach for large enterprises. You can deploy your way and minimize infrastructure needs with deployment options spanning on-premises, SaaS, and public cloud (Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure Marketplaces). Similarly, various licensing options can tailor the features to meet specific needs with support for thousands of concurrent users in geographically disperse locations.

OpenText
 

Sample Customers

Alaska Airlines, Iberia Airlines, Columbia, Skype
Orange, Airbus, Haufe Group, Kellogg's, Claro, Bon Secours, World Wide Technology
Buyer's Guide
Microsoft Azure DevOps vs. OpenText ALM Octane
February 2025
Free Report: Microsoft Azure DevOps vs. OpenText ALM Octane
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