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BMC AMI DevX vs CA Harvest Software Change Manager comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Mar 15, 2026

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

BMC AMI DevX
Ranking in Software Configuration Management
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
Debugging (9th), Database Development and Management (19th), Mainframe Application Development (1st), Test Data Management (6th), Mainframe Testing Tools (1st), Data Masking (6th), AI Software Development (205th)
CA Harvest Software Change ...
Ranking in Software Configuration Management
9th
Average Rating
7.2
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Software Configuration Management category, the mindshare of BMC AMI DevX is 14.4%, down from 28.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of CA Harvest Software Change Manager is 3.4%, up from 3.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Software Configuration Management Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
BMC AMI DevX14.4%
CA Harvest Software Change Manager3.4%
Other82.2%
Software Configuration Management
 

Featured Reviews

PM
Developer at Selfemployed
Good for large amounts of data and has a variety of use cases but can be complex to use
It's a very complicated tool. Sometimes the customer wants better, faster transaction times. They want the solution to move as fast as possible. We're trying to scale and grow our application with more servers to get the level of speed desired. Everything from small processes to big batch processing needs to be faster.
it_user572910 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Configuration Analyst at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Has helped us track the application flow across each of our environments, promotion from dev to our higher environments, to production.
One feature that we are looking for is traceability, and also merging. That is a little cumbersome right now. We have provided our feedback to their representatives so they can provide us a good merging capability next time. One thing that I would like to improve is making the tool a little more user friendly. It takes a little bit of time to adjust to the tool because it's a little different than other version control tools out there in the market. But, it has its own benefits and own security, but that user experience, if they're going to improve it, that would be really great.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"As far as the software vendors that I work with go, Compuware has some of the best support, in terms of listening to customer requests and accepting enhancements to the product and the like."
"One of the features that the developers like is that they can retrieve what they need with the tool. They don't have to go through some process or request something be done by another team. They can get the programs they need, compile them, retrieve the JCL and alter the JCL if they need to, and put these programs wherever they need to go for their testing."
"I think the most valuable features are code management, code deployment, and code generation. The fact that those three features are included makes BMC Compuware ISPW a robust product. If one of those features was missing, it would be less robust and less interesting. But because it has those three features, it is a very good solution for code development and management."
"The debugging is really the most important feature, enabling us to be able to step through."
"The product has made our mainframe data management process easier. It has helped us save manhours. The tool's most valuable feature is the ability to edit tape files. Its ability to clone files is beneficial in application development."
"Compuware Xpediter is one of the best debugging tools for mainframe software development."
"The plugin ISPW integrated into Eclipse is a really valuable functionality for developers who already use it."
"I like that Compuware File-AID can actually map out control sections within load modules, or, as they're now known, program objects."
"The ability to give our teams functionality from a control perspective, allowing them to decide how they want to implement the tool, is valuable."
"Using this solution, we were able to implement a full process for all of our lifecycles."
"The auditing capability is one aspect that I would really recommend other colleagues to look into, because all the other version control tools out in the market provide speed, but the auditing capability is missing; the change management interaction; etc."
"Using this solution, we were able to implement a full process for all of our lifecycles."
"The ability to give our teams functionality from a control perspective, allowing them to decide how they want to implement the tool, is valuable."
"I have not encountered any stability issues."
"CA Mainframe Software Manager (CA Harvest SCM) provides a great way for us to store our source control."
"The most valuable feature I would say is we can integrate that with our change management process and use that to control what goes into production and what doesn't."
 

Cons

"I'm waiting to see what 19.2 for Topaz looks like, but I have a problem with the JES Explorer right now. It limits you to a certain prefix for job names and there are some groups that have multiple prefixes that they'd like to see all at once in their job names, because of how they work in a group. And they can't see that in the JES Explorer."
"When you're setting up the parameters for how ISPW will work in your shop, there are a lot of questions that have to be answered... BMC Compuware should have more in-depth explanations about what the choices in each question mean. If you pick A, what does that mean has to happen? What does that impact? If you pick B, what does that mean? What does that impact?"
"Initial setup can be tricky in some cases."
"Better discussions to identify inventory prior to the start of any migration would be helpful for potential clients that have applications with code that is not modified often."
"Better discussions to identify inventory prior to the start of any migration would be helpful for potential clients that have applications with code that is not modified often."
"It would be nice to have an audit trail to see what mainframe developers are using what."
"One thing I would really like to see some improvement on is the promotion diagnostic messages. It invokes utilities "under the covers" to copy components, and it does not echo back any of the error messages from those utilities."
"When you're setting up the parameters for how ISPW will work in your shop, there are a lot of questions that have to be answered... BMC Compuware should have more in-depth explanations about what the choices in each question mean."
"Technical support for this solution is very good, although they can still use improvement in some regards."
"Technical support for this solution is very good, although they can still use improvement in some regards."
"The features don’t always work as advertised."
"Security features can be improved."
"Password complexity is not enforced by the tool."
"When you're trying to do collaboration or when you're trying to cater to multiple users and developers who submit code changes, it gets challenging with Harvest."
"One feature that we are looking for is traceability, and also merging. That is a little cumbersome right now."
"It needs to be simpler. This is the most difficult SCM tool I’ve ever used."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The only thing I would mention related to the licensing and/or the pricing, is that they have some visualization features in there that are licensed by concurrent users. We're starting to trip up on that. We're looking to probably increase the number of concurrent licenses that we have. But those types of licensing strategies, where they license by concurrent users or the number of seats is confusing for some people. They don't understand why it works sometimes and doesn't work other times."
"In general, Compuware tools are very competitive."
"In terms of pricing, there isn't an extra charge for the parts of it we use. It comes with the licenses we purchased for other products, so no complaints there. The licensing is built in with the other products that you purchase from Compuware."
"I like the seat-based licensing much more than MSU-based licensing, and that the cost has been competitive."
"It has saved our developers time and effort when working on documentation, which is now more readable and fluent."
"The price point is great."
"Once you purchase your licenses, there is maintenance support that is renewed every year."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
33%
Insurance Company
10%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Large Enterprise16
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about BMC Data Management for IMS and DB2 on zOS?
BMC Data Management improved our data recovery process by simplifying it.
What needs improvement with BMC Data Management for IMS and DB2 on zOS?
One area for improvement with this product could be in providing clearer guidance and tools for disaster recovery planning and execution. As someone involved in managing infrastructure, understandi...
What advice do you have for others considering BMC Data Management for IMS and DB2 on zOS?
From my perspective as an infrastructure guy, the most valuable aspect of BMC's data management solutions was their ability to optimize CPU cycles, improving IMS performance without directly impact...
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Also Known As

File-AID, Data for Db2, Code Debug, Data Studio, Workbench for Eclipse, Code Pipeline
CA Harvest SCM, CA Software Change Manager
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Helvetia, The IMT Group, Hapag-Lloyd, Royal Bank of Canada, Chunghwa Telecom
State of New Hampshire, Blue Hill
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC AMI DevX vs. CA Harvest Software Change Manager and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,286 professionals have used our research since 2012.