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BMC Compuware Topaz Workbench vs Gen comparison

BMC and Broadcom are both solutions in the Mainframe Application Development category. BMC is ranked #1, while Broadcom is ranked #4. BMC holds a 25.5% mindshare in MAD, compared to Broadcom’s 6.0% mindshare. Additionally, 71% of BMC users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.
BMC Compuware Topaz Workbench
Read 7 BMC Compuware Topaz Workbench reviews
  • 619 Views
  • 242 Comparison Views
71% willing to recommend
Gen
Read 6 Gen reviews
  • 277 Views
  • 50 Comparison Views
100% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive Summary
We performed a comparison between BMC Compuware Topaz Workbench and Gen based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Mainframe Application Development solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

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To learn more, read our detailed BMC Compuware Topaz Workbench vs. Gen Report (Updated: June 2025).
Buyer's Guide
BMC Compuware Topaz Workbench vs. Gen
June 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

BMC Compuware Topaz Workbench
Ranking in Mainframe Application Development
1st
Average Rating
7.2
Number of Reviews
7
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Gen
Ranking in Mainframe Application Development
4th
Average Rating
8.6
Number of Reviews
6
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Mainframe Application Development category, the mindshare of BMC Compuware Topaz Workbench is 25.5%, down from 29.5% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Gen is 6.0%, down from 6.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Mainframe Application Development
 

Featured Reviews

JW
Replacing ISPF tasks with Topaz Workbench
At this time I do not know of additional improvements from my perspective. Over the last year, Compuware has made major improvements to the JES Explorer, which used to be the biggest negative. There are some tools in ISPF that are not available outside of ISPF right now, things the programmers may need to look at. They still have to go to the green screen for a few things. Since we have the free version of Topaz, we do not have access to the new 3270 emulator that can handle this situation in Eclipse. We have noticed that Topaz supported Eclipse environments are rather old. It would be nice if Topaz were compatible with the more current Eclipse releases. The current version of Eclipse supported by Topaz is Photon.
Read full review
IR
Full packets enable software implementation on the mainframe and client sides
I rate it eight out of 10. It's just very powerful tool, very powerful product to use. Nowadays, there are a couple of mainframe companies, using mainframe products, so to be honest, I'm not recommending it. Of course, if you have mainframe and you have do something in the mainframe that’s different.
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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."
"Once we got the configurations and deployment rolled out, it was very stable. I haven't had any major issues with Eclipse or the Topaz Workbench plugins."
"It's a modernized development portal and helps reduce the learning curve for younger people coming in to work on the platform,"
"The most valuable feature of Topaz is Xpediter. It's more flexible than Xpediter through MVS."
"The smart editor helps because it will code-complete for me. I can see code working a lot faster and I'm able to get things coded in less time."
"From a user perspective, the GUIs make it easier for people to see and interact with files on the mainframe."
"It helps our staff work by speeding up their documentation process."
"You can easily manage the code, and you can easily find other changes, other group changes, other models, other components."
"Full packets, enable you to develop software and systems using these packets, and implement software on the mainframe side and the client side. You can use the same packets, so it's very powerful."
"CA Gen has provided us web development capability."
 

Cons

"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."
"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."
"It often doesn't play well with other plugins in the environment."
"It would be good if the vendors would work together or at least have some collaboration between them, so they would know what would work and what wouldn't work. Right now, the way things are working, they're relying on the customer to make everything work."
"The ability to edit source code that has special characters is limited. The ability to incorporate or convert REXX into macros that are usable under the Topaz software is not there. And the REXX macros that I have developed over 40 years of work are useless, so I have a toolbox I can't use or deploy using the Topaz technology, while I can use it under MVS."
"The area for improvement is related to the testing tools that are available for unit testing or acceptance testing. I know they have some out there that we are not licensed for at this time, but it seems like some of the Eclipse tools that are used for other programming languages, they're all just built-in and they're a little more intuitive to the developers. Making those testing tools as intuitive as possible, and as integrated as possible into the workbench, would be really beneficial."
"It would be nice to have an audit trail to see what mainframe developers are using what."
"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."
"The product needs to be well marketed, then adopted. I am not seeing many customers using the product."
"I cannot use DB2 specifications, DB2 comments, easily."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"In general, Compuware tools are very competitive."
"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."
"It has saved our developers time and effort when working on documentation, which is now more readable and fluent."
"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."
Information not available
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
33%
Insurance Company
17%
Computer Software Company
12%
Healthcare Company
5%
No data available
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
 

Comparisons

IBM Rational Developer for z Systems vs BMC Compuware Topaz Workbench Logo
IBM Rational Developer for z Systems vs BMC Compuware Topaz Workbench
Compared 100% of the time
More BMC Compuware Topaz Workbench Competitors
No data available
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
BMC Compuware Topaz Workbench
June 2025
BMC Compuware Topaz Workbench reportDownload BMC Compuware Topaz Workbench product report
Buyer's Guide
Mainframe Application Development
May 2025
Gen reportDownload Gen product report
 

Also Known As

No data available
CA Gen
 

Overview

Topaz Workbench provides an intuitive interface that enables developers of all experience levels to initiate Compuware’s industry-leading developer tools, Abend-AID, File-AID, Hiperstation, Xpediter and Strobe, as well as non-Compuware products and distributed solutions in the same environment.

Through Topaz Workbench, mainframe teams can:

  • Access Compuware development tools, providing the ability to visualize complex application logic and data relationships, make changes to code, test and debug, and performance tune
  • Leverage existing Eclipse frameworks and integrations with popular open-system tools
  • Manage source code and promote artifacts through the development lifecycle via integration with ISPW
  • Leverage a multi-language, multi-platform source code editor
  • Use JES functions like job submission, review, print and purge
  • Use Host Explorer for z/OS navigation, including dataset management (i.e., allocation, recall, deletion); build mainframe projects to isolate and quickly access files associated with a unit of work
  • Copy files from one LPAR to another with a simple drag and drop or right click; data is compressed and the processing is zIIP enabled for optimal performance
  • Leverage integrations with other industry-leading tools
BMC
CA Gen provides a single, integrated development environment that can help your teams create and maintain large-scale business applications for multiple platforms. This streamlined environment can help reduce manual labor and speed migration time while ensuring the future relevance of existing environments and applications.
Broadcom
 

Sample Customers

Erste Group
Global bank
Buyer's Guide
BMC Compuware Topaz Workbench vs. Gen
June 2025
Free Report: BMC Compuware Topaz Workbench vs. Gen
Find out what your peers are saying about BMC Compuware Topaz Workbench vs. Gen and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.
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