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IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs Polarion ALM comparison

IBM and Siemens are both solutions in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category. IBM is ranked #12 with an average rating of 7.5, while Siemens is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.2. IBM holds a 3.8% mindshare in ALM, compared to Siemens’s 8.3% mindshare. Additionally, 76% of IBM users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 88% of Siemens users who would recommend it.
IBM Engineering Lifecycle M...
Read 19 IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) reviews
  • 1,488 Views
  • 1,473 Comparison Views
76% willing to recommend
Polarion ALM
Read 23 Polarion ALM reviews
  • 4,007 Views
  • 3,646 Comparison Views
88% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jul 6, 2025

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management and Polarion ALM are competing products in the application lifecycle management category. IBM ELM seems to have the upper hand in customer support and integration, while Polarion ALM is more favorable due to its modular architecture and scalability, often seen as more cost-effective in the long term.

Features: IBM ELM is known for robust reporting, traceability across various tools, and seamless integration with other IBM products like DOORS for detailed requirements mapping. Its automation capabilities facilitate efficient data management and decision-making. Polarion ALM stands out for its customizable workflows, robust version control, and comprehensive requirement tracking. Its powerful document control and traceability features allow teams to handle all aspects of requirements engineering effectively.

Room for Improvement: IBM ELM could improve its deployment flexibility to better support cloud-based implementations and streamline its cost structure to appeal more to small and medium-sized businesses. The user interface could also be simplified for easier navigation. Polarion ALM may benefit from enhancements in out-of-the-box functionality for planning and management. Users have suggested simplifying the setup process and refining report generation for better user efficiency.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: IBM ELM provides a traditional deployment process tailored for enterprises needing extensive support. Its thorough enterprise-grade customer service suits larger organizations with complex infrastructures. Polarion ALM offers modern cloud-based deployment, enabling faster implementation and facilitating agile transitions. Its efficient customer service is particularly beneficial for smaller, agile teams.

Pricing and ROI: IBM ELM's initial setup can be substantial but offers a good ROI with its comprehensive functionality and support. It is ideal for enterprises requiring thorough lifecycle management. Polarion ALM provides a cost-efficient pricing model with competitive ROI due to its lower upfront investment and scalability. This makes it an attractive choice for businesses seeking quick adaptation without heavy initial costs.

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To learn more, read our detailed IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs. Polarion ALM Report (Updated: July 2025).
Buyer's Guide
IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs. Polarion ALM
July 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
12th
Average Rating
7.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
19
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Polarion ALM
Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
6th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
23
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Agile Planning Tools (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of August 2025, in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category, the mindshare of IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) is 3.8%, up from 2.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Polarion ALM is 8.3%, up from 5.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
 

Featured Reviews

Juergen Albrecht - PeerSpot reviewer
Combining tools for effective data analysis while customization and integration need improvement
The most valuable feature is how IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) ( /products/ibm-engineering-lifecycle-management-elm-reviews ) 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.
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Dina Bindi - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides traceability and compliance with high flexibility
It's extremely flexible. Configuring items is straightforward and doesn't require involving the supplier each time. We find the requirement management, test management, documentation, and dashboards very effective. However, we don't use DevOps-related features, such as integration with tools like SVN or Git, because we use Azure DevOps. The aspects related to requirements, testing, changes, tasks, and agile methodology are excellent, which is why we've been using it for a long time.
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

"It helped us contain critical things, like source code and several documents, which is very important to us."
"You can customize the board according to your needs."
"The tools for requirement capture we have found very useful."
"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 solution is customizable."
"Everyone in a team can work on the same platform and share the same information."
"The most valuable feature is the reporting of the CPU usage on the dashboard."
"The integration with Git works well."
More IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) pros
"I am impressed with the solution’s stability."
"The technical support is quite good."
"Polarion ALM delivers both document views and table views simultaneously and organizes configurations according to norms and standards."
"Scalability is good...The integration is quite good."
"You can see the work ticket and you can circulate that within the teams. You can define your flows, customize according to your needs, and you can create dashboards and create the reports according to your needs."
"Polarion ALM helps us better structure our customer requirements, and we can also validate the specs of our products against those. If anything changes on our side, we see the impact, and we can see the effect If a customer changes requirements."
"The tool helped us to more effectively and efficiently gather and structure the information (requirements, test plans, project management data, etc.), and share it with the involved stakeholders in a safe and change-controlled manner."
"It's extremely flexible. Configuring items is straightforward and doesn't require involving the supplier each time. We find the requirement management, test management, documentation, and dashboards very effective."
More Polarion ALM pros
 

Cons

"One of the complaints from users is that they have to click buttons too many times for just a simple task. Changing this would lead to a better user experience."
"The solution can improve in the development area and the customized applications."
"The GUI is a little bit outdated."
"The product must be more user-friendly."
"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 features should be more intuitive. If I'm looking for something, its location should be easy to locate."
"The interconnectivity between packages is a major support problem and can be improved."
"The reporting functionality needs to be improved."
More IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) cons
"The solution's editing capabilities need improvement."
"The most important thing for them to improve should be platform-independent features. They should also provide extensive pipelines and release pipelines that we can define and we can work on."
"I also recently suggested that CMS consider incorporating generative artificial intelligence into the system."
"Test management lacks an automated process."
"One of Polarion's shortcomings would be planning. It can handle plans, but the planning feature is very basic."
"The configuration aspect of the solution is not easy. A person needs a lot of programming knowledge in order to successfully handle the job."
"The solution can be improved by making it more user-friendly, and a server-based application rather than client based."
"Nowadays, the dashboard is too complex to be created."
More Polarion ALM cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution is not cheap."
"We have a contract, but I am not aware of the details."
"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."
"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."
"Our license for Polarion ALM is yearly. And it's not the cheapest tool that we've looked at. So if we had made our decision purely based on the licensing cost, we wouldn't have selected Polarion."
"The license model is okay for large companies but would be quite expensive for smaller enterprises."
"Software for medical devices is always expensive."
"If the pricing would come down and it was more affordable then we wouldn't have to switch."
"You have to pay around 50-60 euros per user."
"The solution is expensive."
"It is an expensive product."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
25%
Computer Software Company
14%
Government
13%
Transportation Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
28%
Computer Software Company
12%
Healthcare Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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 Polarion ALM?
It is a very stable solution.
See all answers
What needs improvement with Polarion ALM?
The backlog management for Agile in Polarion ALM could be improved or enhanced in future releases. What is missing is that if you have a hierarchy in your backlog with epics, features, and user sto...
See all answers
What is your primary use case for Polarion ALM?
We are in our product development using Polarion ALM's functionalities. I am a power user, partly responsible for configuring the tool. We are using it for many things. The idea was to go for a req...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

Jira vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) Logo
Jira vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)
Compared 26% of the time
Codebeamer vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) Logo
Codebeamer vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)
Compared 18% of the time
Microsoft Azure DevOps vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) Logo
Microsoft Azure DevOps vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)
Compared 17% of the time
PTC Integrity vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) Logo
PTC Integrity vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)
Compared 9% of the time
Atlassian ALM vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) Logo
Atlassian ALM vs IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)
Compared 7% of the time
More IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) Competitors
Codebeamer vs Polarion ALM Logo
Codebeamer vs Polarion ALM
Compared 31% of the time
Jira vs Polarion ALM Logo
Jira vs Polarion ALM
Compared 21% of the time
Microsoft Azure DevOps vs Polarion ALM Logo
Microsoft Azure DevOps vs Polarion ALM
Compared 14% of the time
Jama Connect vs Polarion ALM Logo
Jama Connect vs Polarion ALM
Compared 8% of the time
GitLab vs Polarion ALM Logo
GitLab vs Polarion ALM
Compared 3% of the time
More Polarion ALM Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM)
July 2025
IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) reportDownload IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) product report
Buyer's Guide
Polarion ALM
July 2025
Polarion ALM reportDownload Polarion ALM product report
 

Also Known As

IBM Engineering Rhapsody, Rational ALM, MKS
No data available
 

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

The world’s first 100% browser-based ALM enterprise solution, which enables seamless collaboration across disparate teams, multi-directionally linked work items, full traceability, accelerated productivity and automated proof of compliance.

Siemens
 

Sample Customers

Tennis Australia, WeCloud AB, Port Otago Limited, Logicalis US, Valmer, The Chevrolet Volt, Ashurst
Engineering Ingegneria Informatica, IBS AG, Zumtobel Group
Buyer's Guide
IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs. Polarion ALM
July 2025
Free Report: IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs. Polarion ALM
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