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BMC AMI DevX vs File Master Plus 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 Mainframe Testing Tools
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.1
Number of Reviews
20
Ranking in other categories
Software Configuration Management (1st), Debugging (6th), Database Development and Management (16th), Mainframe Application Development (1st), Test Data Management (5th), Data Masking (4th), AI Software Development (217th)
File Master Plus
Ranking in Mainframe Testing Tools
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
3
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Mainframe Testing Tools category, the mindshare of BMC AMI DevX is 22.1%, down from 31.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of File Master Plus is 6.9%, up from 5.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Mainframe Testing Tools Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
BMC AMI DevX22.1%
File Master Plus6.9%
Other71.0%
Mainframe Testing Tools
 

Featured Reviews

FI
Devops Engineer / Ispw Admin at a insurance company with 201-500 employees
Tight deployment controls have secured production and simplified complex release rollbacks
The best feature of BMC AMI DevX Code Pipeline that impresses me is the fallback functionality. The fallback functionality impresses me because when developers deploy large releases involving multiple components, such as COBOL programs, underlying copy books, and CICS modules, backing out changes would typically become a nightmare. With ISPW, developers can back out the entire release or entire package. If they deployed 100 components and want to back out everything, they can do so with one function and back out all components without worrying about backing out each individual component. They can back out the entire deployment set, which handles everything and brings them back to the previous versions. Developers can also selectively back out a subset of the deployed components. They also have the ability to revert to not just the most previous version but can go back several versions if they choose to do so. This gives them a lot of flexibility.
it_user847152 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of Enterprise and Mainframe Infrastructure at a financial services firm with 51-200 employees
Eases manageability of data, gives us better efficiency on our batch run
I use it for doing final file maintenance It's easier to do basic tasks; ease of manageability of data. It also gives us better efficiency on our batch run and our day-to-day. In terms of meeting business challenges, it's more of a productivity tool. It makes our data easier to manage. Ease of…

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"We can develop in parallel today on ISPF, but it's giving us the advantage of the newer interface into the mainframe programming languages that younger programmers can use and are familiar with, rather than using the ISPF green screen."
"Topaz workbench is one of the most integrated into Eclipse that I've seen from the mainframe vendors."
"The most valuable feature of Topaz is Xpediter, it's more flexible than Xpediter through MVS."
"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 like that Compuware File-AID can actually map out control sections within load modules, or, as they're now known, program objects."
"BMC Data Management improved our data recovery process by simplifying it."
"The debugging is really the most important feature, enabling us to be able to step through."
"Test data management capabilities are good."
"We use it together with Grid Tools to mask IMS data."
"CA File Master handles IMS data (together with Grid Tools), which we can use to mask/privatize our data then store on IMS databases."
"It also gives us better efficiency on our batch run and our day-to-day."
"The Browse function and utilities are valuable; the solution is easy to use."
"Makes it quick to investigate/fix problems related to application data. Our business can get back to normal operations in short order."
"Provides ease of use, ease of manageability, and ease of managing DSN files."
"Makes it quick to investigate/fix problems related to application data, and our business can get back to normal operations in short order."
 

Cons

"It would be nice to have an audit trail to see what mainframe developers are using what."
"One area for improvement with this product could be in providing clearer guidance and tools for disaster recovery planning and execution."
"DB2 is a hard tool to grasp. It's hard for users to learn how to use it."
"I'm always looking for improvement in things like the documentation, to make things a little bit easier and simpler to understand, a place where people can go to troubleshoot issues."
"Topaz Workbench often doesn't play well with other plugins in the environment."
"Technical support has gotten better over the years, though there's always room for improvement."
"It's not as intuitive as it should be. In terms of navigation, there is a large training curve for using it. For a millennial it might be better, if they're used to Eclipse. But coming from a non-Eclipse environment and using Eclipse, though I have experience with Eclipse, it might be cumbersome."
"It's a very complicated tool."
"For any change to CA File Master, we need a system programmer, which makes the change process very time consuming​."
"​CA File Master cannot handle IMS Sysplex.​"
"It would be better if it took less CPU time."
"They need to keep coming out with new features, and new releases. There hasn't been a new release in a while."
"CA File Master cannot handle IMS Sysplex."
"They need to keep coming out with new features, and new releases. There hasn't been a new release in a while."
"The setup is quite complex. We needed a system programmer for the initial setup."
"It would be better if it took less CPU time."
 

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."
"The price point is great."
"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 pricing is good value."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
33%
Insurance Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Computer Software Company
5%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business6
Midsize Enterprise1
Large Enterprise16
No data available
 

Questions from the Community

What needs improvement with BMC Compuware Topaz Enterprise Data?
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 ...
What is your primary use case for BMC Compuware Topaz Enterprise Data?
We do development for our customers and we use Topaz to do backend systems for some Latin American banks. It's for enterprise data. It runs on AWS. I'm working on performance testing to do batch pe...
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Earn 20 points
 

Also Known As

File-AID, Data for Db2, Code Debug, Data Studio, Workbench for Eclipse, Code Pipeline
CA File Master Plus
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Helvetia, The IMT Group, Hapag-Lloyd, Royal Bank of Canada, Chunghwa Telecom
Blue Hill Data Services
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC AMI DevX vs. File Master Plus and other solutions. Updated: April 2026.
893,221 professionals have used our research since 2012.